New pitfalls of high-density postmortem computed tomography

作者：Kanazawa Ayumi; Hyodoh Hideki^*; Watanabe Satoshi; Fukuda Marika; Baba Miho; Okazaki Shunichiro; Mizuo Keisuke; Hayashi Etsuko; Inoue Hiromasa

来源：Legal Medicine, 2014, 16(5): 297-299.

DOI：10.1016/j.legalmed.2014.05.004

• Trauma
• Postmortem CT
• Superabsorbent polymer
• Cremation
• Pitfall

An 80-year-old female was transferred to the hospital due to a traffic accident. Multiple cranial bone fractures with intracranial hemorrhage and intracranial air were detected. Despite treatment, the patient died after 6 h. Twenty-one hours after the patient died, her whole body was scanned by postmortem CT, and a region of high density was detected within the left putamen. The autopsy revealed a cerebral contusion and multiple skull base fractures. Moreover, superabsorbent polymers (SAPS) were found within the left lateral ventricle and adjacent to the putamen, which appeared as a high-density lesion on postmortem CT at the left putamen, where the SAPs were compacted. Both ante- and postmortem conditions should be considered to prevent misdiagnoses based only on postmortem CT.

• 出版日期2014-9