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

Abstract

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.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00414-016-1327-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Computed Tomography Measurement and Evaluation of the Subarachnoid Space Over Cerebral Convexities in Infants Aged 1-24 Months

“…Currently, the evaluation of postmortem cerebrospinal fluid space is rare. Hasegawa et al 23 found that the lateral cerebral ventricle volume decreases as a function of postmortem time in an evaluation using CT. This change indicates that the data measured after death may not be directly applied to living people.…”

Estimation of the time of death by measuring the variation of lateral cerebral ventricle volume and cerebrospinal fluid radiodensity using postmortem computed tomography

“…Non-linear fitting was performed with the nls function in R. Fitted curve were presented together with confidence bands, corresponding to one standard deviation, as described in [17]. Data measured in the present paper were systematically compared with those published in the pioneering work of Hasegawa and coworkers [11], which contributed to stimulate us to undertake this research and is published by the authors under the creative commons license (CC-BY 4.0). For a direct comparison among time trends, data points from [11] were digitalized from the published manuscript to obtain the x and y coordinates.…”

“…Postmortem body changes observed via PMCT can be also used to determine the postmortem interval (PMI) of a subject. Although several qualitative and quantitative approaches have been proposed in determining the time since death and the postmortem interval (PMI) [8][9][10][11][12][13], traditional methods are still predominantly used in forensic practice, and these methods are based on an evaluation of livor, rigor, and algor mortis. Until now, only a few studies have been published on the utilization of PMCT as a tool for PMI determination, showing promising results.…”

“…Hasegawa et al observed a linear reduction with time in the size of the frontal and posterior horns of the lateral cerebral ventricles (LCV), as well as a progressive rise over time in the radiodensity of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) as a function of the PMI in three male subjects over time from 1-2-h up to 16-24-h postmortem (hpm) [11].…”

The role of PMCT for the assessment of the cause of death in natural disaster (landslide and flood): a Sicilian experience

“…PMCT is widely used in the forensic field for several purposes, mainly assessing the cause of death, individual identification, and estimating the post-mortem interval [3][4][5][6][7]. Moreover, it has great relevance for analysis (detection, visualization, and practical description) of traumatic injuries [8], leading to considerable clout in assessing traumatic death.…”