Postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) is nowadays part of the analytical toolkit of forensic anthropologists. When investigating presence and type of skeletal sharp force lesions, however, the usefulness of tomographic data is not clarified. Similarly, scanty data are available about the statistical association between soft tissue and bone lesions, with potential biases when trying to reconstruct violent scenariosfrom skeletal traumatic patterns. Here, we tacklethese issues by studying sharp force trauma ina sample of 41 individuals analyzed at the IRM Bern. All individuals died following exposure to sharp force trauma information for all individuals include autopsy and forensic radiology reports, and PMCT. Two forensic anthropologists with different radiological training investigated sharp force lesions on PMCT. We then compared the results among observers, and with those from the original autopsy and radiology reports. Intra- and interobserver agreements were moderate to perfect, intermodality agreements were substantial. Agreement with forensic examinations was rather low, with the lowest errors obtained on the 2D modality. Out of a total 623 soft tissue injuries, 71 (11.4%) penetrated to the bone, with individual frequencies averaging 26.1%. All bone lesions in suicides concentrated on the thorax and were executed with large knives. Bone lesions in homicides, associated with a variety of sharptools, were most frequent on the thorax, followed by the head and neck and the upper extremities. Our study provides new data for forensic and archaeological reconstructions based on skeletal traumatic patterns. They also highlight important methodological issues facing this type of studies.
Detecting skeletal perimortem sharp force trauma on postmortem computed tomography images in forensic anthropology
Milella M
2022-01-01
Abstract
Postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) is nowadays part of the analytical toolkit of forensic anthropologists. When investigating presence and type of skeletal sharp force lesions, however, the usefulness of tomographic data is not clarified. Similarly, scanty data are available about the statistical association between soft tissue and bone lesions, with potential biases when trying to reconstruct violent scenariosfrom skeletal traumatic patterns. Here, we tacklethese issues by studying sharp force trauma ina sample of 41 individuals analyzed at the IRM Bern. All individuals died following exposure to sharp force trauma information for all individuals include autopsy and forensic radiology reports, and PMCT. Two forensic anthropologists with different radiological training investigated sharp force lesions on PMCT. We then compared the results among observers, and with those from the original autopsy and radiology reports. Intra- and interobserver agreements were moderate to perfect, intermodality agreements were substantial. Agreement with forensic examinations was rather low, with the lowest errors obtained on the 2D modality. Out of a total 623 soft tissue injuries, 71 (11.4%) penetrated to the bone, with individual frequencies averaging 26.1%. All bone lesions in suicides concentrated on the thorax and were executed with large knives. Bone lesions in homicides, associated with a variety of sharptools, were most frequent on the thorax, followed by the head and neck and the upper extremities. Our study provides new data for forensic and archaeological reconstructions based on skeletal traumatic patterns. They also highlight important methodological issues facing this type of studies.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
