Springer, International Journal of Legal Medicine, 6(135), p. 2615-2623, 2021
DOI: 10.1007/s00414-021-02698-6
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Abstract Using postmortem CT (PMCT), changes in the volume of the lateral cerebral ventricles (LCVs) and modifications of the radiodensity of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) have been examined to identify a possible relationship between these changes and the time of death. Subsequent periodical CT scans termed “sequential scans” for ten corpses at known time of death were obtained, and a 3D segmentation of the entire LCV was carried out to measure its volume and radiodensity over time from ~ 5.5- h up to 273-h postmortem. A linear decrease of the LCV volume for all the cases was observed in the investigated time range, together with an overall logarithmic increase of radiodensity. Although a larger sampling should be performed to improve the result reliability, our finding suggests that the postmortem variation of CSF radiodensity can be a potentially useful tool in determining postmortem interval, a finding that is worthy of further investigation.