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Post-mortem 1.5T MR quantification of regular anatomical brain structures

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Abstract

Recently, post-mortem MR quantification has been introduced to the field of post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging. By usage of a particular MR quantification sequence, T1 and T2 relaxation times and proton density (PD) of tissues and organs can be quantified simultaneously. The aim of the present basic research study was to assess the quantitative T1, T2, and PD values of regular anatomical brain structures for a 1.5T application and to correlate the assessed values with corpse temperatures. In a prospective study, 30 forensic cases were MR-scanned with a quantification sequence prior to autopsy. Body temperature was assessed during MR scans. In synthetically calculated T1, T2, and PD-weighted images, quantitative T1, T2 (both in ms) and PD (in %) values of anatomical structures of cerebrum (Group 1: frontal gray matter, frontal white matter, thalamus, internal capsule, caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus pallidus) and brainstem/cerebellum (Group 2: cerebral crus, substantia nigra, red nucleus, pons, cerebellar hemisphere, and superior cerebellar peduncle) were assessed. The investigated brain structures of cerebrum and brainstem/cerebellum could be characterized and differentiated based on a combination of their quantitative T1, T2, and PD values. MANOVA testing verified significant differences between the investigated anatomical brain structures among each other in Group 1 and Group 2 based on their quantitative values. Temperature dependence was observed mainly for T1 values, which were slightly increasing with rising temperature in the investigated brain structures in both groups. The results provide a base for future computer-aided diagnosis of brain pathologies and lesions in post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to our team of forensic pathologists and forensic technicians for their support with case handling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern, Buehlstrasse 20, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Wolf-Dieter Zech, Anna-Lena Hottinger, Nicole Schwendener, Frederick Schuster & Christian Jackowski

  2. Department of Diagnostic, Interventional and Pediatric Radiology, University of Bern, Inselspital, Freiburgstrasse 10, Bern, CH-3010, Switzerland

    Frederick Schuster

  3. Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV), University of Linköping, 58185, Linköping, Sweden

    Wolf-Dieter Zech, Anders Persson & Marcel J. Warntjes

Authors
  1. Wolf-Dieter Zech
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  2. Anna-Lena Hottinger
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  3. Nicole Schwendener
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  4. Frederick Schuster
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  5. Anders Persson
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  6. Marcel J. Warntjes
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  7. Christian Jackowski
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Correspondence to Wolf-Dieter Zech.

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Zech, WD., Hottinger, AL., Schwendener, N. et al. Post-mortem 1.5T MR quantification of regular anatomical brain structures. Int J Legal Med 130, 1071–1080 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-016-1318-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-016-1318-3

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