Jackowski Christian, Thali Michael, Sonnenschein Martin, Aghayev Emin, Yen Kathrin, Dirnhofer Richard, Vock Peter
Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern, Switzerland.
J Forensic Sci. 2004 Nov;49(6):1339-42.
Venous air embolism (VAE) is an often occurring forensic finding in cases of injury to the head and neck. Whenever found, it has to be appraised in its relation to the cause of death. While visualization and quantification is difficult at traditional autopsy, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computed Tomography (CT) offer a new potential in the diagnosis of VAE. This paper reports the findings of VAE in four cases of massive head injury examined postmortem by Multislice Computed Tomography (MSCT) prior to autopsy. MSCT data of the thorax were processed using 3D air structure reconstruction software to visualize air embolism within the vascular system. Quantification of VAE was done by multiplying air containing areas on axial 2D images by their reconstruction intervals and then by summarizing the air volumes. Excellent 3D visualization of the air within the vascular system was obtained in all cases, and the intravascular gas volume was quantified.
静脉空气栓塞（VAE）是头颈部损伤案件中经常出现的法医学发现。一旦发现，必须对其与死因的关系进行评估。虽然传统尸检时可视化和量化VAE很困难，但磁共振成像（MRI）和计算机断层扫描（CT）在VAE诊断方面提供了新的可能性。本文报告了4例严重头部损伤病例在尸检前通过多层螺旋计算机断层扫描（MSCT）进行死后检查时发现VAE的情况。使用3D空气结构重建软件处理胸部的MSCT数据，以可视化血管系统内的空气栓塞。通过将轴向二维图像上含气区域乘以其重建间隔，然后汇总气体体积来对VAE进行量化。在所有病例中均获得了血管系统内空气的出色三维可视化效果，并对血管内气体体积进行了量化。
