Craniocerebral trauma--congruence between post-mortem computed tomography diagnoses and autopsy results: a 2-year retrospective study

TY - JOUR

T1 - Craniocerebral trauma--congruence between post-mortem computed tomography diagnoses and autopsy results: a 2-year retrospective study

AU - Jacobsen, Christina

AU - Lynnerup, Niels

N1 - Keywords: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Brain; Brain Injuries; Child; Child, Preschool; Female; Forensic Pathology; Humans; Imaging, Three-Dimensional; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Male; Middle Aged; Observer Variation; Retrospective Studies; Skull; Skull Fractures; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Young Adult

PY - 2010/1/30

Y1 - 2010/1/30

N2 - Computed tomography (CT) has been used routinely at the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen since 2002. A retrospective study was performed in order to correlate CT-scan based diagnoses of cranial and cerebral lesions with macroscopic autopsy diagnoses in 56 cases. The CT-scans were performed by a forensic pathologist. They were obtained by using two different CT-scan protocols. The results showed correct skull fracture diagnoses in 34/56 cases. Fractures were diagnosed partially (9) or missed totally (13) on CT-images in 22 cases. The agreement for fracture diagnoses of the anterior, medial and posterior cranial fossae was 20%, 52% and 60%, respectively. Fractures involving bilateral bones were diagnosed correctly more frequently. The diagnostic agreement regarding brain injuries varied from 0% to 79%. Both the autopsy-reports and CT-scan descriptions need to be standardized in order to secure more exact comparisons in the future.

AB - Computed tomography (CT) has been used routinely at the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen since 2002. A retrospective study was performed in order to correlate CT-scan based diagnoses of cranial and cerebral lesions with macroscopic autopsy diagnoses in 56 cases. The CT-scans were performed by a forensic pathologist. They were obtained by using two different CT-scan protocols. The results showed correct skull fracture diagnoses in 34/56 cases. Fractures were diagnosed partially (9) or missed totally (13) on CT-images in 22 cases. The agreement for fracture diagnoses of the anterior, medial and posterior cranial fossae was 20%, 52% and 60%, respectively. Fractures involving bilateral bones were diagnosed correctly more frequently. The diagnostic agreement regarding brain injuries varied from 0% to 79%. Both the autopsy-reports and CT-scan descriptions need to be standardized in order to secure more exact comparisons in the future.

U2 - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2009.10.001

DO - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2009.10.001

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 19900771

SN - 0379-0738

VL - 194

SP - 9

EP - 14

JO - Forensic Science International

JF - Forensic Science International

IS - 1-3

ER -