A New Application of Forensic Radiology: Identification of Deceased From a Single Clavicle

Skeletal Identification by Radiographic Comparison: Blind Tests of a Morphoscopic Method Using Antemortem Chest Radiographs*,†,‡

“…This included coaching on thoracic anatomy, chest radiograph interpretation, and radiographic comparison methods. Because the other examiners (i.e., [3][4][5][6][7][8] received no in-depth pretest mentoring, they were categorized as being ''untrained.'' This categorization should not be interpreted to mean that these examiners had no understanding of the radiographic comparison principles (examiners were all drawn from disciplines where radiographic comparison is routine); no clinical radiography training; no experience or training undertaking radiographic comparisons; or no familiarity ⁄ training with the osseous structures of the chest-as some did (see Table 3 for details).…”

“…Despite several published case reports that use comparisons of AM ⁄ PM chest radiographs to help identify disarticulated skeletons (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11), no large-scale controlled scientific studies have been pursued to systematically quantify method accuracies. Such studies are warranted so that methods with known errors can be applied in forensic casework (12,13).…”

Radiographic Identification Using Midline Medical Sternotomy Wires,

“…This research follows numerous other radiographic studies that have analyzed the scapula, hyoid, hand, chest, frontal sinuses, vertebrae, clavicles, maxillary sinuses, ankle, and orthopedic surgical devices to identify human remains . While previous studies have tested the reliability of surgically implanted devices, these findings have focused on the type of device, such as hip implants and plates/screws related to fracture repair , or the manufacturer and lot number .…”

The Use of Radiology in Mass Fatality Events

“…Medical imaging has long been used for the identification of human remains and is well documented (Binda et al 1999;Buchner 1985;Craig 1995;Jensen 1991;Murphy et al 1980;Sanders et al 1972;Schwartz and Woolridge 1977). Radiology is used extensively in anthropological and odontological assessment of postmortem and antemortem radiographs, records, or other images for concordance because they represent an excellent source of data for comparison of anatomical features (Figures 5-2A and 5-2B).…”