Possibilities of using contrast agents in postmortem computed tomography

Possibilities of using contrast agents in postmortem computed tomography

Tumanova U.N.1, Serova N.S.2, Bichenko V.G.1, Shchegolev A.I.

The literature data which demonstrate the possibilities of using computed tomography (CT) with contrast agents for the analysis of the deceased patients’ bodies are presented.

1 - V.I. Kulakov National Medical Research Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology. 2 - I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University. Moscow, Russia.

It is shown that postmortem CT angiography significantly expands the possibility of so-called noninvasive autopsy. The information on the features of the use of different types of con-trast agents as well as the main methods of postmortem CT angiography are presented. The use of targeted postmortem CT angiography allows to study the features of blood supply and to identify pathological changes in blood vessels of certain organs, in particular, coro-nary heart disease and cerebrovascular lesions. CT angiography of the whole body, especially multiphase postmortem CT angiography, allows to visualization of the cardiovascular system as a whole. The use of CT angiography is most effective for determining the source and vol-ume of internal bleeding, the severity of thrombosis and the degree of stenosis of blood ves-sels, the type and prevalence of vascular malformations. We noted the complexity of the ap-plication and possible artifacts of postmortem CT angiography. It was concluded that postmortem CT angiography can be used to analyze of the bod-ies and clarify the tanatogenesis of deceased patients. We accented that postmortem CT an-giography cannot fully replace the traditional autopsy despite its high specificity and sensi-tivity with regard to visualization of fatal bleeding.

Keywords: autopsy, postmortem computed tomography (CT), angiography, heart, blood vessels.

Corresponding author:Tumanova U.N., e-mail: Этот e-mail адрес защищен от спам-ботов, для его просмотра у Вас должен быть включен Javascript

For citation: Tumanova U.N., Serova N.S., Bichenko V.G., Shchegolev A.I. Possibilities of using contrast agents in postmortem computed tomography. REJR 2018; 8 (3):83-99. DOI:10.21569/2222-7415-2018-8-3-83-99.

Received: 16.08.18 Accepted: 30.08.18