Virtual anthropology and forensic identification: report of one case.
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.
Dedouit
Fabrice
F
Service de Médecine Légale, Hôpital de Rangueil, 1 Avenue du Professeur Jean Poulhès, 31403 Toulouse Cedex 4, France. fabded2@hotmail.com
Telmon
Norbert
N
Costagliola
Rémi
R
Otal
Philippe
P
Joffre
Francis
F
Rougé
Daniel
D
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