Nikolaus Krebs1,
2, Christian Langkammer3, Thomas Ehammer1,
Karl-Olof Lvblad4, Gerlinde Komatz5, Stefan Ropele3,
Franz Fazekas6, Kathrin Yen7, Eva Scheurer1,
2
1Ludwig
Boltzmann Institute for Clinical-Forensic Imaging, Graz, Austria; 2Medical
University, Graz, Austria; 3Department of Neurology, Medical
University, Graz, Austria; 4Department of Radiology, University
Hospital, Genve, Switzerland; 5CT/MR-Center Graz Geidorf, Graz,
Austria; 6Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz,
Graz, Austria; 7Institute of Legal and Traffic Medicine,
University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
Though globally spread in clinical routine the use of MRI in forensic brain injury assessment is yet not established at all. We compared MRI findings from blinded radiologic readings to macroscopic findings of corresponding brain slices of 17 deceased subjects. Radiologists detected almost twice the number of findings than brain slices revealed. Overall number of hemorrhages was nearly equal. Macroscopically five times more micro-bleedings were found than in MRI, meanwhile findings such as microangiopathy, MS lesions or lacuna were depicted only in MRI. MRI might add valuable information to forensic expertise and offers an interdisciplinary approach in brain tissue analysis.