Methods of Forensic Imaging

The goal of this chapter is to familiarize the reader with various imaging modalities utilized in forensic radiology and investigations. Forensic radiology is a further growing field and has become an important part of forensic medicine especially in the last years, although the first forensic X-rays were taken shortly after their discovery in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. Besides X-ray, computed tomography, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging, there are different other imaging techniques such as 3D-surface documentation, which take part in forensic imaging and are able to visualize, enhance or document relevant forensic findings, or reconstruct crime scenes and accidents. As in diagnostic radiology, in forensic radiology 3D reconstructions of cross-sectional imaging like 3D volume rendering technique in different opacities can visualize, emphasize, and illustrate findings especially for nonphysicians like the police and the court. Postmortem imaging is usually done by the departments of forensic medicine, as well as 3D-surface documentation. Ante-mortem imaging mostly takes place in the hospital at the time the crime or accident happened and is reevaluated from the forensic perspective by a forensic-experienced trained radiologist afterward. Saving the acquired imaging data, e.g., in classic PACS (picture archiving and communication system) systems like in diagnostic clinical radiology or on external hard discs, enables the longtime permanent storage of postmortem imaging for further (re-)evaluations and 3D reconstructions or image fusion of different modalities.