Vitreous humor is best described as what?

• A. Fluid in the eyeball collected during autopsy for toxicology
• B. Fluid in the brain
• C. Fluid in the heart
• D. Fluid in the kidneys

Answer: (A)

Vitreous humor is the clear, gel-like fluid that fills the vitreous body of the eye, located behind the lens. In autopsy toxicology, this intraocular fluid is often collected because it remains relatively stable after death and can provide reliable information for certain analyses, such as electrolytes, glucose, and some drugs, without being as affected by postmortem changes as blood. It’s not fluid in the brain (that would be cerebrospinal fluid), not fluid in the heart, and not urine in the kidneys.