TY - JOUR PY - 2011// TI - Use of postmortem computed tomography to reveal an intraoral gunshot injuries in a charred body JO - Legal medicine (Elsevier) A1 - Sano, Rie A1 - Hirawasa, Satoshi A1 - Kobayashi, Susumu A1 - Shimada, Takehiro A1 - Awata, Sachiko A1 - Takei, Hiroyuki A1 - Otake, Hidenori A1 - Takahashi, Keiko A1 - Takahashi, Youichiro A1 - Kominato, Yoshihiko SP - 286 EP - 288 VL - 13 IS - 6 N2 - A 53-year-old man was found dead after a fire at his residence had been extinguished. Although a pistol was recovered beside the body, external examination was unable to indicate any gunshot wound because of severe charring of the body. Postmortem computed tomography (CT) scan performed prior to autopsy suggested an entrance gunshot wound in the posterior pharynx with loss of soft tissue and an internal bullet path through the right anterior and posterior parts of the occipital bone. Autopsy revealed an entrance gunshot wound with hemorrhage in the soft tissue of the posterior pharynx, massive contusion of the right occipital lobe, and subarachnoid hemorrhage in the right temporal lobe, both occipital lobes and the superior surface of the left cerebellar hemisphere, thus being consistent with the findings of postmortem CT. A carboxyhemoglobin concentration of 5% in blood from the cadaver was consistent with the lack of soot deposition from the larynx to the bronchus. These observations confirmed that death had been caused by an intraoral gunshot resulting in severe brain damage, before the body had been burned.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 1344-6223 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.legalmed.2011.07.004 ID - ref1 ER -