Norihiro Shinkawa MD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Ryuichi Nishii MD, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Hiroki Tamura, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Ichijo Hodaka, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Nobuhiro Yukawa, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Shigeki Nagamachi MD, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Identification of unknown deceased body has been performed mainly based on DNA profiling, fingerprinting or dental X-ray, however preparation of referred ante-mortem samples under controlled condition are complicated. Recently, post-mortem whole body CT has been widely used. And chest X-ray is also widely available not only for chest diseases but also for medical checkup. The purpose of this study is to develop novel method for identification unknown body using forensic imaging. As the initial examination, we assess the concordance between post-mortem chest CT and ante-mortem chest X-ray.

Among 82 subjects performed post-mortem CT in our institute from April 2010 to February 2014, 15 subjects (11 male and 4 female, 65±19 years) who underwent chest X-ray (as an ante-mortem imaging) more than 1 year ago were enrolled in this investigation. To compare chest coronal CT focused on the soft tissue attenuation and chest X-ray among same person and others, total of 225 tests were performed using automatic 2D-fusion module of the image analysis workstation Vincent(Fujifilm Medical System, Japan).

For the automatic 2D-fusion module, anatomical landmarks were placed in both apex and sub-carina (3-point method), or both medial margin of the thorax at the horizontal level of the sub-carina in addition to above 3 point(5-point method). Each CT was superimposed on X-ray using 3-point or 5-point method. Distance score of the portion gap of landmark (mm) between post-mortem CT and ante-mortem X-ray was assessed using the module in the workstation. In the 3-point method, when employing same person’s CT and X-ray, mean distance score of position gap were 4.13±2.99, in contrast 5.61±3.08 when employing those images of different person (P=0.06). In the 5-point method, when employing those images of the same person, mean distance score of position gap were 4.70±2.57, in contrast 6.77±2.73 when employing those images of different person (P<0.01).

To identify the unknown deceased body, post-mortem CT was considered to be useful by comparing with ante-mortem chest X-ray. Using 5-point method, automatic 2D-fusion module of the Vincent workstation was useful tool to identification of post-mortem CT.

This novel imaging analysis method is promising to develop newly-proposed computer assisted diagnostic imaging for swift and precise identification of unknown deceased body.

Shinkawa, N, Nishii, R, Tamura, H, Hodaka, I, Yukawa, N, Nagamachi, S, Assessment of Efficacy of Automatic 2D-fusion Module to Identify Unknown Body using Forensic Imaging—Comparison of Ante-mortem Chest X-ray and Post-mortem Chest CT.  Radiological Society of North America 2014 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, - ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2014/14015510.html