VIRTOPSY – The Swiss virtual autopsy approach
Introduction
The application of imaging methods for non-invasive documentation and analysis of relevant forensic findings in living and dead persons has lagged behind the enormous technical development of imaging methods. There are only a few textbooks dealing with forensic radiology [1], [2]. Most of these textbooks concentrate on classical roentgenographic methods and hardly cover the newer sectional imaging techniques of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in detail. Forensic radiology, including all techniques and their many uses for forensic purposes, now is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary subspecialty of both forensic medicine and radiology. Shortly after the communication of the detection of X-rays by Conrad Roentgen the new non-invasive technique was used for forensic documentation purposes. But modern cross-section imaging is still underutilized in forensics, mainly due to the unawareness of its potential in forensic science but also to the cost and the limited access to and training for these newer modalities, such as Computer Tomography-CT, including spiral multislice, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging-MRI.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
The Institutes of Forensic Medicine and of Diagnostic Radiology of the University of Bern, Switzerland, started a research project in 2000, with the hypothesis that non-invasive imaging might predict autopsy findings and maybe give additional information.
The responsible justice department and also the ethics committee of the University of Bern approved the study.
In this joint project called “Virtopsy” [11] we used the newest generation of:
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Multidetector row or Multislice Spiral Computer
Forensic application of radiological micro-imaging – Virtual histology
In many cases, the resolution of clinical scanners is not sufficient to answer questions relevant to forensic medicine nondestructively. This favors the idea of using microscoping non invasive imaging methods with their much higher resolution to visualize forensic specimens [4].
We have used microtomography of small object or micro-CT in a forensic case of a knife’s blade inside cortical and trabecular bone to determine the injury pattern and the weapon involved [4], [12].
In forensic soft tissue
Data management and teleconsultation
The Virtopsy project generates enormeous numbers of digital DICOM data that can easily be archived, transmitted on a network, copied, quantitatively analyzed and postprocessed on a workstation.
Digital format not only allows compact digital archiving but also cuts the cost of films, of film handling and of archive space as soon as an institute is prepared for the digital solution (PACS = picture archiving and communication system).
Postprocessing is another tool that opens new ways of analyzing
Conclusion and outlook
Evidently, imaging techniques are nowadays excellent tools for forensic medicine. Similar to inspection and photography but in contrast to other tools, they are able to freeze the findings at the moment of investigation without causing any damage. Freezing means permanent (analogue or digital) preservation as a document of proof, whether the victim is dead and undergoing postmortem decay or surviving and loosing evidence due to healing. Causing no damage is an essential prerequisite in a living
Acknowledgements
Thanks go to all the Virtopsy research team members (see [11]).
Prof. Dr. med. Michael Thali, Executive MBA HSG, is working since 1995 in forensic medicine. He has a two year fellowship in clinical radiology. In 2001/2002 he was a fellow at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington DC. He wrote many virtual autopsy papers (see www.virtopsy.com). Since February 2006 he is full professor for forensic medicine at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He is director of the “Center for Forensic Imaging” at the Institute of Forensic Medicine
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Prof. Dr. med. Michael Thali, Executive MBA HSG, is working since 1995 in forensic medicine. He has a two year fellowship in clinical radiology. In 2001/2002 he was a fellow at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington DC. He wrote many virtual autopsy papers (see www.virtopsy.com). Since February 2006 he is full professor for forensic medicine at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He is director of the “Center for Forensic Imaging” at the Institute of Forensic Medicine Bern.