Virtuopsy. Nuovo approccio alle indagini medico legali.

VIRTOPSY®: A NOVEL APPROACH TO FORENSIC INVESTIGATIONS Several imaging techniques, including especially multislice computed tomography (MSCT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), may be of great help in medico-legal autopsies. For this reason, they are increasingly used in forensic pathology, especially in European countries such as Switzerland, France, Germany, and beyond, such as the United States, Australia, China and Japan. Tomography allows a prior view of the internal organs of the body; MRI is most suitable for the evaluation of the soft tissues. Virtopsy® is an increasingly routine practice in Europe and America and is basically in the documentation and analysis of a body volume by imaging techniques. Through the CT and MRI images are obtained which allow a detailed view of the body, by means of 3D reconstruction. There are many possible fields of application of this method: assessment of injury by firearms, by weapon, by violent mechanical asphyxia (drowning, hanging and strangulation, drowning and internal clogging), from polytrauma and identification of the corpse. With this new method, it is possible to repeat the virtual autopsy at any time and at any place without altering any findings useful to medico-legal purposes.