The use of magnetic resonance in the hospital and coronial pediatric postmortem examination

Forensic Sci Med Pathol. 2007 Dec;3(4):289-96. doi: 10.1007/s12024-007-9017-5.

Abstract

The role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has rapidly progressed from being a research tool to an ancillary pre-autopsy imaging technique and now an adjunct of the postmortem (PM) examination. In this review, we describe our experience with the use of PM MRI over the last 6 years in more than 300 fetal PM examinations, initially as research and finally the most recent use in 30 pediatric coronial autopsies. The pediatric pathologist and the neonatal and fetal radiologist retrospectively measured the impact on diagnosis at each stage of the development of the technique together. All imaging techniques have the advantage of being non-invasive, more acceptable to the public, especially certain religious groups and provide a permanent record of the features observed.

MeSH terms

  • Age Factors
  • Autopsy
  • Cause of Death
  • Central Nervous System / pathology*
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cooperative Behavior
  • England
  • Fetus / pathology*
  • Forensic Sciences / methods*
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Interdisciplinary Communication
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
  • Pediatrics / methods*
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Reproducibility of Results