Abstract #0929

Direct Validation of MRI Findings in Postmortem Brain

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.