Evaluation of post-mortem lateral cerebral ventricle changes using sequential scans during post-mortem computed tomography

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• 作者：Iwao Hasegawa ; Akinobu Shimizu ; Atsushi Saito…
• 刊名：International Journal of Legal Medicine
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：September 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：130
• 期：5
• 页码：1323-1328
• 全文大小：2,043 KB
• 刊物类别：Medicine
• 刊物主题：Medicine & Public Health
  Forensic Medicine
  Medical Law
  Medicine/Public Health, general
  
• 出版者：Springer Berlin / Heidelberg
• ISSN：1437-1596
• 卷排序：130

文摘

In the present study, we evaluated post-mortem lateral cerebral ventricle (LCV) changes using computed tomography (CT). Subsequent periodical CT scans termed “sequential scans” were obtained for three cadavers. The first scan was performed immediately after the body was transferred from the emergency room to the institute of legal medicine. Sequential scans were obtained and evaluated for 24 h at maximum. The time of death had been determined in the emergency room. The sequential scans enabled us to observe periodical post-mortem changes in CT images. The series of continuous LCV images obtained up to 24 h (two cases)/16 h (1 case) after death was evaluated. The average Hounsfield units (HU) within the LCVs progressively increased, and LCV volume progressively decreased over time. The HU in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) increased at an individual rate proportional to the post-mortem interval (PMI). Thus, an early longitudinal radiodensity change in the CSF could be potential indicator of post-mortem interval (PMI). Sequential imaging scans reveal post-mortem changes in the CSF space which may reflect post-mortem brain alterations. Further studies are needed to evaluate the proposed CSF change markers in correlation with other validated PMI indicators.KeywordsPost-mortem computed tomographySequential scanPost-mortem changeLateral cerebral ventriclePost mortem interval