Postmortem imaging in forensic medicine
Postmortem imaging in forensic medicine
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Issue Date
2016
Authors
Covarrubias, Yesenia
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that with a declining rate of autopsy performances, and with advancements in medical technology, postmortem imaging (PMI) is an effective technique to complement forensic medicine.
A Scans review was performed by searching the National University Forensic Library Database (NULFD), which was then supplemented with a manual search of bibliographies and selected journals. Articles were eligible if they included more than 5 subjects, and reported the use of postmortem CT (PMCT), postmortem MRI (PMMRI), or both, and autopsy. The cause of death (COD) must have been established. The outcomes were described in terms of the percentage agreement on CODs.
Thirteen studies were included describing 714 subjects. The median sample size was 20 (range 5-339). Five studies used PMCT and PMMRI vs. autopsy; five studies used PMCT vs. autopsy; and three studies used PMMRI vs. autopsy. PMI did not show an accuracy of 75% or greater at establishing a COD overall (p-value=1). The inter-method agreement between PMI and autopsy did not reach statistical significance (p-value=0.1118). However, PMI showed and accuracy of 75% or greater at establishing a COD in trauma cases (p-value=0.0196).
This systematic review offers a descriptive exploration of the complementary role PMI has to autopsy. Further research is needed to confirm these findings and to establish reproducibility of results from this study.
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Keywords
Postmortem imaging , Postmortem computed tomography , Postmortem magnetic resonance , Autopsy