Berna ŞENEL ERASLAN, GÜRSEL ÇETİN, Naci KOÇER

Technical note: Whole-body postmortem angiography of the arterial and venous systems with barium sulfate

In the field of postmortem angiography, a great deal of diverse methods has been used since 17th-18th centuries. In recent years significant technical developments, namely CT and MR, played an important role in the field giving that they help to carry the quality of postmortem imaging one step further. The principal aim of this study is to present an autopsy center with a postmortem imaging technique that is practical, cheap and easy to handle and also able to provide detailed images of whole vascular system of body. In this study, 25% diluted barium sulfate solution was preferred since it has been kept-up-to-date through decades and extensively used in similar studies. It was manually injected through various arteries and veins without pressure control by the aid of injectors or cannulas. The images were analyzed with a C-armed fluoroscopy. 138 corpses, that were sent to Ministry of Justice, Council of Forensic Medicine İstanbul for autopsy, were studied. And 8 of 138 corpses were in the state of putrefaction. After angiographic studies took place, conventional autopsy was performed and the findings of two techniques were compared. This technique can be used as a supplementary method to conventional autopsy and assists resolution of cases involving vascular lesions.

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