Noninvasive in situ proton MRS in muscle tissue and bone marrow as a novel approach to identify previous freezing in a completely thawed cadaver

Gascho, Dominic; Richter, Henning; Karampinos, Dimitrios C; Heimer, Jakob; Schaerli, Sarah; Thali, Michael J; Zoelch, Niklaus

doi:10.1002/nbm.4220

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Gascho, D., Richter, H., Karampinos, D. C., Heimer, J., Schaerli, S., Thali, M. J., & Zoelch, N. (2020). Noninvasive in situ proton MRS in muscle tissue and bone marrow as a novel approach to identify previous freezing in a completely thawed cadaver. NMR in Biomedicine, 33(2), e4220. https://doi.org/10.1002/nbm.4220

Abstract

The temporary or permanent storage of human bodies in freezers following a homicide is a documented method for criminal disposal of human corpses. In these cases, the detection of characteristics which indicate that a thawed cadaver or body part was previously frozen provides crucial information for forensic casework. Previous histological and radiological approaches to detect characteristics of previous freezing are based on the formation of bubble‐like gas patterns, which are difficult to distinguish from common postmortem gas forma