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Identification of deceased based on sternal bone computed tomography features.
Geraldine Weiss1, Holger Wittig1, Eva Scheurer1
1Institute of Forensic Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Institute of Forensic Medicine, Health Department Basel-Stadt, Basel, Switzerland.
Forensic Science International
|March 31, 2018
Summary
Forensic identification of unknown deceased can be improved using a new reproducible method for radiologic identification (RADid) of sternal bone computed tomography (CT) scans. This automated approach shows high potential for accurate identification in mass disaster scenarios.
Area of Science:
- Forensic radiology
- Medical imaging
- Human identification
Background:
- Visual radiologic comparison for identifying unknown deceased is subjective and lacks standardization.
- Developing objective, statistically supported methods for forensic identification is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a reproducible, examiner-independent radiologic identification (RADid) method using sternal bone CT features.
- To evaluate the feasibility of an automated comparison of post-mortem (PM) against ante-mortem (AM) CT scans for identification.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of 44 in situ PM and corresponding AM sternal bone CT scans.
- Selection of reproducible morphometric and morphological features based on reliability assessments.
- Development of an automated comparison algorithm against a database of 94 AM cases.
Main Results:
- Several sternal bone features demonstrated reliability (correlation coefficient ≥ 0.60) and stability between AM and PM scans.
- Automated comparison successfully identified cases in 76.7% of instances.
- Unambiguous identification was achieved in 65.1% of the evaluated cases.
Conclusions:
- The sternal bone is a suitable structure for a standardized, statistically validated radiologic identification method.
- The developed RADid method offers significant potential for improving accuracy and objectivity in forensic identification.
- Automated comparison of sternal CT scans presents a promising advancement in identifying unknown deceased individuals.
Keywords:
Computed tomographyForensicPost-mortemRadiologic comparisonRadiologic identificationSternal boneMore Related Videos
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