Andreas Petrovic1,
Clemens Diwoky2, Eva Hassler1, Kathrin Ogris1,
Eva Scheurer1
1Ludwig
Boltzmann Institute for Clinical-Forensic Imaging, Graz, Austria; 2Institute
for Medical Engineering, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
In forensic medicine the morphological characterization of subcutaneous (s.c.) hemorrhage caused by violent events is highly desired. Detailed knowledge of the origin and age of injury can help to reconstruct the sequence of events. However, accurate dating of s.c. hemorrhage is still an unsolved problem. In this study we examined volunteers with artificially created hematomas at several points in time after hematoma creation using the IDEAL fat-water separation technique. We found that with this method excellent delineation of s.c. hemorrhage is possible. Additionally, ROI analysis of water fraction images indicates a systematic decrease of water fraction with time.