title: Virtual anthropology and forensic identification: report of one case.
abstract: A charred body was found after a fire in a house in a mountainous region of France. The body was severely burned and was not formally identified as the owner of the house. Autopsy was carried out to seek vital reactions and/or traumatic lesions and to identify the corpse. Before bone preparation and after autopsy, multislice computed tomography (MSCT) was performed in order to assess the potential of the technique for radiological anthropological bone identification. The challenge was to determine as accurately as possible the sex, age, ante-mortem stature and ethnic of the victim using both MSCT and conventional bone study. The results of the two techniques were compared. MSCT provided an answer to all the questions, whereas bone study did not. To the best of our knowledge, this case is the first to use MSCT for forensic anthropological study and illustrates the potential contribution of this technique in this field.
authors.affiliation: Service de Médecine Légale, Hôpital de Rangueil, 1 Avenue du Professeur Jean Poulhès, 31403 Toulouse Cedex 4, France. fabded2@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dedouit
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Telmon
authors.forename: Rémi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Costagliola
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Otal
authors.forename: Francis
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Joffre
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rougé
mesh_terms: D000365:Age Determination by Skeleton; D001827:Body Height; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000473:pathology*; D002056:Burns / Q000473:pathology; D005006:Ethnicity; D005390:Fires; D018732:Forensic Anthropology / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods