Pulmonary thromboembolism as cause of death on unenhanced postmortem 3T MRI

Jackowski, Christian; Grabherr, Silke; Schwendener, Nicole (2013). Pulmonary thromboembolism as cause of death on unenhanced postmortem 3T MRI. European radiology, 23(5), pp. 1266-1270. Springer-Verlag 10.1007/s00330-012-2728-3

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OBJECTIVES: To investigate unenhanced postmortem 3-T MR imaging (pmMRI) for the detection of pulmonary thrombembolism (PTE) as cause of death.
METHODS: In eight forensic cases dying from a possible cardiac cause but with
homogeneous myocardium at cardiac pmMRI, additional T2w imaging of the pulmonary artery was performed before forensic autopsy. Imaging was carried out on a 3-T MR system in the axial and main pulmonary artery adapted oblique orientation in situ. In three cases axial T2w pmMRI of the lower legs was added. Validation of imaging findings was performed during forensic autopsy.
RESULTS: All eight cases showed homogeneous material of intermediate signal
intensity within the main pulmonary artery and/or pulmonary artery branches.
Autopsy confirmed the MR findings as pulmonary artery thrombembolism. At lower leg imaging unilateral dilated veins and subcutaneous oedema with or without homogeneous material of intermediate signal intensity within the popliteal vein were found.
CONCLUSIONS: Unenhanced pmMRI demonstrates pulmonary thrombembolism in situ. PmMR may serve as an alternative to clinical autopsy, especially when consent cannot be obtained.
KEY POINTS:
• Postmortem MRI (pmMRI) provides an alternative to clinical autopsy
• Fatal pulmonary thrombembolism (PTE) can now be diagnosed using postmortem MRI (pmMRI).
• Special attention has to be drawn to the differentiation of postmortem
clots.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute of Legal Medicine > Forensic Medicine
04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute of Legal Medicine > Management

UniBE Contributor:

Jackowski, Christian, Schwendener, Nicole

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

0938-7994

Publisher:

Springer-Verlag

Language:

English

Submitter:

Katrin Renfer

Date Deposited:

10 Jun 2014 09:29

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:30

Publisher DOI:

10.1007/s00330-012-2728-3

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.44531

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/44531

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