Research Progress on Postmortem Interval Estimation by Postmortem Computed Tomography

Postmortem interval (PMI) refers to the interval between the discovery or examination of the body and the occurrence of death. Estimation of postmortem interval is one of the important research contents in forensic pathology, and it has always been the focus and hot spot of research work. Different techniques are used to evaluate and analyze the changes in the human body after death to estimate postmortem interval. The traditional methods of estimation of postmortem interval are based on postmortem phenomena such as algor mortis, rigor mortis, livor mortis, etc. These methods rely on the subjective experience of forensic pathologists, and the estimated time of death is a relatively wide range, and the estimated result is susceptible to subjective judgment. In recent years, postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) has become increasingly influential in the field of forensic pathology. Postmortem computed tomography is a non-invasive, rapid, and objective auxiliary means of autopsy, which can significantly improve the quality and efficiency of autopsy and can find imaging features that may not be observed in traditional autopsy. After the death of the human body, the body will undergo a series of postmortem changes according to a certain time law. A series of characteristic imaging changes in cadaver organs and tissues with the passage of time of death can be observed through the application of postmortem computed tomography, and these imaging changes can be quantitatively and objectively described, The potential ideal imaging indicators can be used to estimate postmortem interval and the correlation between these indicators and the postmortem interval can be analyzed. This paper systematically reviewed the research on the correlation between postmortem imaging features of organs and tissues (such as brain, heart, aorta, lung, liver, etc.) after postmortem computed tomography of various parts of the cadaver (head, chest, abdomen) and the estimation of postmortem interval, in order to provide new ideas for the study of the estimation of postmortem interval and further expand the application of virtual anatomy technology in the field of forensic pathology.