Citation

Okuda T, Shiotani S, Hayakawa H, Kikuchi K, Kobayashi T, Ohno Y. Forensic Sci. Int. 2013; 225(1-3): 71-74.

Affiliation

Department of Legal Medicine, Nippon Medical School, Japan; Tsukuba Medical Examiner's Office, Japan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.forsciint.2012.04.035

PMID

22648056

Abstract

We present a case of fatal cervical discoligamentous hyperextension injury without fracture. Postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) and postmortem magnetic resonance imaging (PMMRI) disclosed cervical instability and spinal cord injury in the absence of fracture, which was confirmed by autopsy. Cervical discoligamentous injury without fracture may be unnoticeable on PMCT because signs of cervical misalignment change depending on the posture of the neck at the time of postmortem imaging. Because of its greater sensitivity for soft tissue injury, PMMRI is especially useful for detecting pathological changes in cases of death due to cervical discoligamentous injury. In this paper, findings on postmortem imaging for this injury are described in detail and correlated with findings on autopsy.

The subject was a 67-year-old rice farmer with a history of hypertension and arrhythmia. At the end of a day spent working in his rice field, he was found lying unconscious next to the driver's seat of his tractor in his garage. The tractor had collided with the back wall of the garage in forward gear, and the engine was still running. He was brought to our hospital in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest and pronounced dead shortly after admission despite cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Investigation at the scene revealed skin debris from the subject's body on the entrance ceiling of the garage. Medicolegal investigation was initialized to ascertain the cause of death.

Language: en