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Virtopsy—noninvasive detection of occult bone lesions in postmortem MRI: additional information for traffic accident reconstruction

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Abstract

In traffic accidents with pedestrians, cyclists or motorcyclists, patterned impact injuries as well as marks on clothes can be matched to the injury-causing vehicle structure in order to reconstruct the accident and identify the vehicle which has hit the person. Therefore, the differentiation of the primary impact injuries from other injuries is of great importance. Impact injuries can be identified on the external injuries of the skin, the injured subcutaneous and fat tissue, as well as the fractured bones. Another sign of impact is a bone bruise. The bone bruise, or occult bone lesion, means a bleeding in the subcortical bone marrow, which is presumed to be the result of micro-fractures of the medullar trabeculae. The aim of this study was to prove that bleeding in the subcortical bone marrow of the deceased can be detected using the postmortem noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging. This is demonstrated in five accident cases, four involving pedestrians and one a cyclist, where bone bruises were detected in different bones as a sign of impact occurring in the same location as the external and soft tissue impact injuries.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Urs Koenigsdorfer and Roland Dorn for their help during the forensic examinations and Suzanne Horlacher, Elke Spielvogel, Karin Zwygart, Christoph Laeser and Carolina Dobrowolska (Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Neuroradiology, University of Bern) for the excellent help and data acquisition during the radiological examination. Many thanks also to Lowri Jones for her great support with linguistic knowledge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern, IRM–Buehlstrasse 20, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Ursula Buck, Andreas Christe, Silvio Naether, Steffen Ross & Michael J. Thali

  2. State Police Bern, Accident Service, Schermenweg 9, 3001, Bern, Switzerland

    Ursula Buck

  3. Institute of Diagnostic Radiology, University Hospital of Bern, 3010, Bern, Switzerland

    Andreas Christe

Authors
  1. Ursula Buck
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  2. Andreas Christe
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  3. Silvio Naether
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  4. Steffen Ross
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  5. Michael J. Thali
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ursula Buck.

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Buck, U., Christe, A., Naether, S. et al. Virtopsy—noninvasive detection of occult bone lesions in postmortem MRI: additional information for traffic accident reconstruction. Int J Legal Med 123, 221–226 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-008-0296-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-008-0296-5

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