Craniocerebral trauma--congruence between post-mortem computed tomography diagnoses and autopsy results: a 2-year retrospective study.
Computed tomography (CT) has been used routinely at the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen since 2002. A retrospective study was performed in order to correlate CT-scan based diagnoses of cranial and cerebral lesions with macroscopic autopsy diagnoses in 56 cases. The CT-scans were performed by a forensic pathologist. They were obtained by using two different CT-scan protocols. The results showed correct skull fracture diagnoses in 34/56 cases. Fractures were diagnosed partially (9) or missed totally (13) on CT-images in 22 cases. The agreement for fracture diagnoses of the anterior, medial and posterior cranial fossae was 20%, 52% and 60%, respectively. Fractures involving bilateral bones were diagnosed correctly more frequently. The diagnostic agreement regarding brain injuries varied from 0% to 79%. Both the autopsy-reports and CT-scan descriptions need to be standardized in order to secure more exact comparisons in the future.
Jacobsen
Christina
C
Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. Christina.Jacobsen@forensic.ku.dk
Lynnerup
Niels
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012886:Skull / Q000473:pathology; D012887:Skull Fractures / Q000473:pathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D055815:Young Adult