The Rise of Postmortem Imaging in Forensic Radiology and Paleoradiology

The interdisciplinary nature of radiology lends itself to other specialties, such as forensic medicine, archeology, and anthropology. While the term "virtopsy" or "virtual autopsy" has become established in forensic medicine for the non-invasive (and minimally invasive) examination of deceased persons prior to, or instead of an autopsy, the radiological examination of remains is referred to as "paleoradiology" in archeological and anthropological specialties. Over the past 20 years, the proliferation of, and increasing accessibility to, computed tomography scanners, in addition to the ever-increasing image resolution and examination speed of this imaging modality, have firmly established radiology in forensic medicine, archaeology, and anthropology. Other imaging modalities, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), are also finding increasing utilization in these specialties which is reflective of the rise of postmortem imaging.

This Research Topic addresses the benefits and opportunities of radiological examinations of the deceased in a forensic context and of archaeological and mummified remains in archeological and anthropological science, whilst highlighting the difficulties and challenges involved. Thus, we encourage potential authors to overview the utilization of common radiologic imaging modalities for postmortem examinations in other specialties in order to promote collaboration among these disciplines, as forensic radiology is not globally advanced. Finally, this Research Topic aims to collect and present cutting-edge science in the fields of virtopsy and paleoradiology, as well as performing data synthesis to combine the results and examine them for agreements, convergences, divergences, or discrepancies.

This Research Topic covers all uses of radiological imaging techniques for the examination of deceased persons, historical remains, and artifacts. Authors are welcome to submit the following article types: Original Research, Systematic Review, Review, Mini Review, Policy and Practice Reviews, Methods, Hypothesis and Theory, Perspective, Case Report, Data Report, Brief Research Report, General Commentary, and Opinion.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: forensic medicine, postmortem imaging, virtopsy, virtual autopsy, ancient radiology, mummified remains

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.