Postmortem Radiological Characteristics of the Development of Nonspecific Postmortem Changes in the Body of a Newborn

Abstract

he literature data and the results of our own repeated (double) thanatoradiological (CT and MRI) studies are presented to assess the dynamics of the development of postmortem changes in the observation of a newborn girl who died 26 minutes after birth due to a congenital heart defect -Ebstein anomaly type C. The first CT of the body of the deceased newborn was performed 13 hours and 14 minutes after the death, the second -after 82 hours and 34 minutes. The first MRI was performed after 8 hours 34 minutes after death, the second -after 79 hours 56 minutes. In between studies, the body was stored in a refrigerator at 4°C.As a result of CT studies of the body, it was found that an increase in the duration of the postmortem period leads to a decrease in the volume of intravascular gas when the body is stored in a refrigerator at a temperature of 4°C.Repeated MRI of the brain revealed a decrease in the severity of furrows and convolutions up to their complete leveling, as well as a decrease in the clarity of the boundaries of intracerebral structures and the disappearance of the signal gradient between gray and white matter by the type of radiation pattern of brain tissue edema.In liver tissue in both series of MR-tomograms, a clear signal intensity gradient line was noted, which is more pronounced at T1-WI. At a later MRI, a change in the values of tissue signal intensities with a change in the degree of gradient at T1-WI and T2-WI was found. Lung tissue was also characterized by changes in the MR signal intensities in the higher and lower parts of the organ.At the first MRI, homogeneous contents were observed in the cavities of the heart. In the second case, two levels of the heart contents were visualized with a clear even line of the signal intensity gradient reflecting the processes of blood sedimentation. The dynamics of postmortem changes in the volume of free fluid in the serous cavities depends on its lifetime presence and quantity.It is concluded that thanatoradiological studies are highly effective methods of detecting nonspecific postmortem changes and their differential diagnosis with lifetime-developed pathological processes.