Jackowski
Fakultäten » Medizinische Fakultät » Rechtsmedizin, Institut für » Prof. Dr. Walter Bär (emeritiert) » Jackowski
Current research project
| Title / Titel | Postmortem MR imaging for the cause of death assessment | ||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | Clinical autopsy numbers are decreasing since decades now. With the consecutive loss of secure postmortem information a fundament of quality control in health care and the mortality statistics of the population are seriously affected. The most obvious reason contributing to this negative trend is the declining acceptance of the autopsy and its destructive nature within the population. The aim is to implement a non-destructive technique of postmortem data acquisition by using MRI that will be much more accepted within the population and that can close the increasing gap in postmortem diagnostics. However, the research done so far in forensic research projects concentrates on quality improvements for the legal system only. Within first studies postmortem MRI turned out to be very promising also in assessment of natural causes of death. Especially the cardiac death is of interest as it represents the major fraction of natural causes of death in our community. To implement postmortem MRI as an alternative to today’s gold standard of postmortem diagnostics (autopsy) the MRI approach has to be validated against the autopsy in a sufficient number of cases. Cases of natural death will be documented by postmortem MRI prior to forensic autopsy and the results of both techniques will be compared including histological investigations of tissue alterations. The project is a collaborative project of the Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Zürich, and the Center of Medical Image Science and Visualization, CMIV, University of Linköping, Sweden and the Department of Forensic Medicine, Linköping, Sweden. The expected benefits and positive impacts on the health care system are manifold. It will generate the scientific background for a widespread implementation of postmortem MRI for the cause of death assessment. This can then lead to more deceased to be examined because the consent for a postmortem MR examination will be much easier obtained from the dependants than for an autopsy. The increase in postmortem examinations will have a positive impact on quality control in medicine, on medical education and on the quality of our mortality statistics. As the latter provides the fundament for further medical research planning and political health care decisions these also benefit from the results provided by this project. The project furthermore widens today’s applications for the MRI technique which will open a new market for the supply industry of MR scanners and its visualization technique. |
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| Publications / Publikationen | Jachau K, Heinrichs T, Kuchheuser W, Krause D, Wittig H, Schoening R, Beck N, Beuing O, Doehring W, Jackowski C. (2004) Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging compared to pathoanatomic findings in isolated human autopsy hearts. Rechtsmedizin, 14:109–116.Jackowski C, Schweitzer W, Thali M, Yen K, Aghayev E, Sonnenschein M, Vock P, Dirnhofer R (2005) Virtopsy: postmortem imaging of human heart in situ using MSCT and MRI Forensic Sci Int, 149(1):11-23Jackowski C, Dirnhofer S, Thali M, Aghayev E, Dirnhofer R, Sonnenschein M (2005) Postmortem diagnostics using MSCT and MRI of a lethal streptococcus group A infection at infancy: A case report Forensic Sci Int, 16;151(2-3):157-63Jackowski C, Christe A, Sonnenschein M, Aghayev E, Thali MJ (2006) Postmortem unenhanced magnetic resonance imaging of myocardial infarction in correlation to histological infarction age characterization Eur Heart J, 27(20):2459-67.Jackowski C, Thali M, Aghayev E, Yen K, Sonnenschein M, Vock P, Dirnhofer R (2006) Noninvasive estimation of organ weights by postmortem magnetic resonance imaging and multislice computed tomography. Invest Radiol, 41:572-578 |
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| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | Postmortem MR Imaging, Natural Death | ||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
SNF (Personen- und Projektförderung) SNF, Swedish Knowledge Foundation, Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine |
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| In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Dec 2009 to Mar 2013 |