Application of 4D imaging and compter graphics in the region of forensic pathology

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Recent advances in computer technology have allowed for quantitative analysis of internal human anatomical structures in three dimensional (3D) or four dimensional (4D) space. In order to perform various forensic medical technques such as injury inspection or non destructive measurements of body parts 3D and 4D imaging were applied. In addition, this approach could estimate the cause of death using 3D and 4D simulation.In the case of bullet wound analysis, we utilized this simulation system to accurately determine a bullet's pathway. Normally X-ray photography or observations with the naked eye do not provide the spatial accuracy available from 3D structural body data. Therefore, after some experimental trials, we developed a 3D imaging method to identify the pathway of a bullet that had penetrated an actual brain. In the 3D brain image reconstructed from a serial X-ray CT data set, the path of the bullet and the distribution of bone fractures in the brain were cleary obsered. By ident … More ifying CT values, metal bullet fragments that adhered to fractured bone could also be visualized.3D imaging was also appied to stab wound analysis. Identification of the weapon used to inflict a penetrating wound can be difficult from the results of physical autopsy alone. Therefore, we examined whether it was possible to visualize the location and size of penetrating wounds in body tissue with 3D imaging, and predict the type of weapon used. We createan experimental case to develop a visualization technique for this wound penetration analysis. As an experimental model, the livers of pigs were penetrated with various knives. Contrast media was injected into the wound entrance of each liver. Then, the liver was measured by CT as serial section images. Both the shape and the direction of the wound in the liver tissue were observed by rotating the 3D image on the body axis. Futhermore, vessels in the liver cut by the weapon were also visualized, because the contrast media entered the vessels from the opening at the wound. The condition of vessels severed by the weapon could indicate the cause of death and helped estimate the amount of bleeding.In order to perform a retrospective analysis of old cases or provide material for training and education we archived the image data of our research. Both the subject's morphological information and 3D and 4D images are stored on accessible digital data. The image database produced for our medicine research project will prove invaluable for the future of forensic medicine. Less