Clinical-forensic imaging & postmortem forensic medicine
One of my major scientific strengths is conducting research in the field of clinical-forensic imaging, which has a major impact on criminal proceedings in living victims. Applying magnetic resonance imaging to certain forensic questions allows to non-invasively detect relevant injury findings in addition to an external examination. As methodology particularly in MRI needs to be adapted to the aim of the exam and the questions to be answered, research and development of such methods are needed. My main fields of research in clinical-forensic imaging are age estimation, strangulation, fracture dating, and the detection and dating of hematomas. Forensic age estimation in adolescents is a highly relevant issue not only scientifically but also politically and legally. My studies concentrate mainly on the development and use of MRI based methods. I was able to show that X-ray based methods applied to assess dental and skeletal age, could be replaced by MRI and that the same staging systems could be used. The question of dating injury is important in forensic medicine. However, in living persons standard methods such as histology cannot be applied, and injured tissues heal and regenerate. The hypothesis of my scientific work is that MR based methods, i.e. morphologic as well as quantitative MRI permit to identify and measure additional information in regenerating tissue and its surrounding which can be used for dating. This applies similarly to hematomas as well as to fractures. Particularly in child abuse cases, estimating the age of a fracture as precisely as possible is decisive to include or exclude suspects.
In the field of postmortem forensic medicine, my focus is mainly on methodology with the aim of developing and optimizing methods to translate technical advances into a practical benefit for daily forensic routine. My research included the development of computer-aided tools for forensic case analysis and identification of deceased, investigating artefacts in organ histology after postmortem CT angiography, and establishing a technical set-up for infrared photography. Additionally, during my entire research career I have been investigating brain structure using MR based methods. My first steps in research included the use of MR spectroscopy in situ for the estimation of the postmortem interval based on metabolites from degrading brain tissue. Later, I explored diffusion-weighted and diffusion tensor MRI in postmortem brain tissue. Currently, my focus is on the investigation of brain edema, the influence of temperature of postmortem brain MRI and the validation of findings, as forensic autopsy and histology offer a unique opportunity for validating neuroradiology findings and can, thus, contribute to interdisciplinary science.
