BehindTheMedspeak: CSI Scandinavia — Bloodless Autopsy

Emily Stone's above-headlined article appears in the February, 2009 issue of Wired magazine, and follows.

The caption for the graphic above, which accompanied the story: "1. This image, prepared for a murder trial, is optimized to show the skeleton and the knife that pierced the victim's eye. 2. Here, a reddish tint and boosted opacity isolate muscle tissue. 3. A sharpening filter is used to render the skin more opaque."

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CSI Scandinavia: Computer Dissects Cadavers With No Scalpel

Think of it as CSI: Scandinavia. At Linköpings University Hospital in Sweden, radiologist Anders Persson dissects cadavers without lifting a scalpel. Using magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography, he captures thousands of images of a body, from head to toe. A computer then assembles the pieces—layer upon layer of tissue and bone—into a stunning 3-D postmortem portrait in which structures are differentiated by hue and opacity: Bones appear white and opaque; organs, a translucent red. Pathologists can then easily strip away the layers—first skin, then a web of blood vessels, then a blanket of muscle—all the way down to the skeleton. Hunting for minuscule bone fractures once required intensive dissection; now it's just a matter of keystrokes.

Virtual autopsies reveal evidence that ordinary examinations often miss, like gas trapped inside wounds, which can show the path of a bullet or knife blade. Swedish police have used the images in more than 300 murder cases. Bonus: They're easier for jurors to understand (and stomach).

But Persson's technique isn't just for peeking inside dead people; it's great for premortem examinations, too. Doctors can identify the exact location of a lung tumor or study blood flow in 3-D to estimate the volume of a leak in a faulty heart valve. It can also provide an invaluable sneak preview before surgery, Persson says: "You can simulate an operation without touching the patient.