MINI REVIEW article
Front. Radiol.
Sec. Emergency Radiology
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fradi.2025.1557636
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Rise of Postmortem Imaging in Forensic Radiology and PaleoradiologyView all 3 articles
VIRTual autOPSY-applying CT and MRI for modern forensic death investigations
Provisionally accepted
- Institute of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Virtual autopsy, an advanced forensic technique, utilizes cutting-edge imaging technologies such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the cause and manner of death without the need for physical dissection. By creating detailed, three-dimensional data of the entire body or specific areas of interest, these post-mortem imaging modalities provide a comprehensive, non-invasive approach to examining decedents. This article explores the historical development of virtual autopsy, its current applications in forensic medicine, and its promising future. It highlights the crucial roles of CT and MRI in forensic death investigations, while also addressing the challenges and limitations associated with these imaging techniques in post-mortem examinations.
Keywords: Virtual autopsy (VIRTOPSY), Postmortem computed tomography (PMCT), Postmortem computed tomography angiography (PMCTA), Postmortem magnetic resonance (PMMR) imaging, Postmortem magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Forensic imaging, Postmortem imaging
Received: 08 Jan 2025; Accepted: 28 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gascho. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dominic Gascho, Institute of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.