[Behavior of 5-hydroxytryptamine and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in relation to agonized suffering (I)].

The authors have studied the levels of 5-HT and 5-HIA,--in serum, CSP fluid and pericardial fluid of cadavers at the Forensic Anatomic Institute of Granada and its relations with the length of agonized suffering. The results showed us that the study of 5-HT and its main metabolite, the 5-HIAA, may be useful for the exact evaluation of agonized suffering, and the pericardial fluid is most suited for the analysis of 5-HT and 5-HIAA. We found that there was a significant correlation between the 5-HT and 5-HIAA and the agonized suffering. When the agonized sufferings of a moderate length (10 min-6h) were compared with the slow and long processes of death, the correlation was highly significant (P less than 0.001).