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Role of virtopsy in the post-mortem diagnosis of drowning.
Lo Re, Giuseppe; Vernuccio, Federica; Galfano, Maria Cristina; Picone, Dario; Milone, Livio; La Tona, Giuseppe; Argo, Antonella; Zerbo, Stefania; Salerno, Sergio; Procaccianti, Paolo; Midiri, Massimo; Lagalla, Roberto.
Afiliação
  • Lo Re G; Department of Radiology, DIBIMEF, University Hospital P. Giaccone, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro, 129, 90127, Palermo, PA, Italy.
Radiol Med ; 120(3): 304-8, 2015 Mar.
Article em En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-25012474
PURPOSE: Due to admitted limits of autopsy-based studies in the diagnosis of drowning, virtopsy is considered the new imaging horizon in these post-mortem studies. The aim of our study was to evaluate the role of virtopsy performed through computed tomography (CT) in the forensic diagnosis of drowning. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively examined the CT data of four cadavers recovered from sea water and suspected to have died by drowning. Each patient underwent a full-body post-mortem CT scan, and then a traditional autopsy. RESULTS: All the cadavers showed fluid in the airways and patchy ground-glass opacities in the lung. Only one patient had no fluid in the digestive tract; this patient had a left parietal bone fracture with a large gap and other multiple bone fractures (nose, clavicle, first rib and patella). One of the three patients who had fluid in the digestive tract had no fluid in the paranasal sinuses. This latter patient showed cerebral oedema with subarachnoid and intraventricular haemorrhage, multiple bone fractures (orbital floor, ribs, sacrum and acetabular edge) and air in the heart, in the aorta and in bowel loops. CONCLUSION: To date, there are no autopsy findings pathognomonic of drowning. This study proves that virtopsy is a useful tool in the diagnosis of drowning in that it allows us to understand if the victim was alive or dead when he entered the water and if the cause of death was drowning.
Assuntos

Texto completo: 1 Base de dados: MEDLINE Assunto principal: Autopsia / Interpretação de Imagem Radiográfica Assistida por Computador / Tomografia Computadorizada por Raios X / Causas de Morte / Afogamento Tipo de estudo: Diagnostic_studies / Observational_studies / Prognostic_studies / Risk_factors_studies Limite: Humans Idioma: En Revista: Radiol Med Ano de publicação: 2015 Tipo de documento: Article País de afiliação: Itália

Texto completo: 1 Base de dados: MEDLINE Assunto principal: Autopsia / Interpretação de Imagem Radiográfica Assistida por Computador / Tomografia Computadorizada por Raios X / Causas de Morte / Afogamento Tipo de estudo: Diagnostic_studies / Observational_studies / Prognostic_studies / Risk_factors_studies Limite: Humans Idioma: En Revista: Radiol Med Ano de publicação: 2015 Tipo de documento: Article País de afiliação: Itália