Abstract
Postmortem computed tomography (pmCT) is increasingly applied in forensic medicine as a documentation and diagnostic tool. The present study investigated if pmCT data can be used to estimate the corpse weight. In 50 forensic cases, pmCT examinations were performed prior to autopsy and the pmCT data were used to determine the body volume using an automated segmentation tool. PmCT was performed within 48 h postmortem. The body weights assessed prior to autopsy and the body volumes assessed using the pmCT data were used to calculate individual multiplication factors. The mean postmortem multiplication factor for the study cases was 1.07 g/ml. Using this factor, the body weight may be estimated retrospectively when necessary. Severe artifact causing foreign bodies within the corpses limit the use of pmCT data for body weight estimations.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Dr. Chunliang Wang (Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization, CMIV, University of Linköping, Linköping, Sweden) who programmed the Mia Lite plugin for Osirix, and Julia Brünig (Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern) for helpful brainstorming.
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Jackowski, C., Schwendener, N., Zeyer-Brunner, J. et al. Body weight estimation based on postmortem CT data—validation of a multiplication factor. Int J Legal Med 129, 1121–1125 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-015-1199-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-015-1199-x