It may be difficult to distinguish the cause of death in drowning cases without specific findings.The aim of this study was to explore the forensic value of thoracic postmortem computed tomography(PMCT)using routine i...It may be difficult to distinguish the cause of death in drowning cases without specific findings.The aim of this study was to explore the forensic value of thoracic postmortem computed tomography(PMCT)using routine images and three-dimensional(3D)image reconstructions.The imaging data of PMCT examinations of six drowning cadavers,aged 21-54years,were analyzed.Twelve victims of sudden death from coronary artery disease(CAD)were chosen as a control group.After 3D bilateral lung images were reconstructed using image processing software,an interactive medical image control system was used to measure and analyze parameters including lung volume,lung volume ratio,mean CT value of the whole lung,and lung CT value distribution curves.Lung volume and lung volume ratio were used to assess the shape changes of the lung.Lung CT value distribution curves showed the corresponding number of pixels of the different CT values in the lung image.Lung volume was not signifi-cantly larger in drowning cases(mean 2958cm^(3))than in controls(mean 2342cm^(3)).Lung vo-lume ratio values in the drowning group(mean 0.3156)were greater than those in the control group(mean 0.2763);(P=0.02).There was no significant difference between the drowning and control group in the mean CT value of the whole lung.There were differences between lung CT value distribution curves in drowning victims and controls,with drowning victims showing a single peak and CAD cases showing a bimodal distribution.Thoracic PMCT is help-ful for the forensic medical diagnosis of drowning.Lung volume ratio and lung CT value distri-bution are potential indicators to distinguish between drowning and CAD.展开更多
基金supported by grants from the National Key R&D Program of China[grant number 2016YFC0800702]the Science and Technology Committee of Shanghai Municipality[grant number 17DZ2200700]+3 种基金the National Natural Science Found of China[grant number 81571851]the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Crime Scene Evidence[grant number 2017XCWZK06]the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Forensic Medicine[grant number 17DZ2273200]and the Shanghai Forensic Service Platform[grant number 16DZ2290900].
文摘It may be difficult to distinguish the cause of death in drowning cases without specific findings.The aim of this study was to explore the forensic value of thoracic postmortem computed tomography(PMCT)using routine images and three-dimensional(3D)image reconstructions.The imaging data of PMCT examinations of six drowning cadavers,aged 21-54years,were analyzed.Twelve victims of sudden death from coronary artery disease(CAD)were chosen as a control group.After 3D bilateral lung images were reconstructed using image processing software,an interactive medical image control system was used to measure and analyze parameters including lung volume,lung volume ratio,mean CT value of the whole lung,and lung CT value distribution curves.Lung volume and lung volume ratio were used to assess the shape changes of the lung.Lung CT value distribution curves showed the corresponding number of pixels of the different CT values in the lung image.Lung volume was not signifi-cantly larger in drowning cases(mean 2958cm^(3))than in controls(mean 2342cm^(3)).Lung vo-lume ratio values in the drowning group(mean 0.3156)were greater than those in the control group(mean 0.2763);(P=0.02).There was no significant difference between the drowning and control group in the mean CT value of the whole lung.There were differences between lung CT value distribution curves in drowning victims and controls,with drowning victims showing a single peak and CAD cases showing a bimodal distribution.Thoracic PMCT is help-ful for the forensic medical diagnosis of drowning.Lung volume ratio and lung CT value distri-bution are potential indicators to distinguish between drowning and CAD.
