The rise of forensic and post-mortem radiology-Analysis of the literature between the year 2000 and 2011

Objective: It was the aim of this study to investigate the evolution of published literature in the field of post-mortem and forensic radiology, determine what technology is most widely used, identify primary research topics, and uncover areas where the evidence basis for post-mortem and forensic radiology is lacking. Materials and methods: We performed an online literature search using 62 different combinations of search terms to identify articles on post-mortem and forensic radiology published between the year 2000 and 2011. For each publication included in the study, the following pieces of information were retrieved: title and abstract, author affiliation, year of publication, name of journal, type of article, and article language. Publications were categorized based on content, imaging modalities, use of additional techniques, and study population. Results: A total of 661 publications were analyzed. Publications related to post-mortem and forensic radiology experienced a tenfold increase over the last 10 years. The majority of all publications focused on the documentation of injury or disease and identification of human remains. Computed tomography (CT) is chiefly used to investigate traumatic injury, magnetic resonance (MR) to assess cardio-vascular and cerebral disease, and radiographs to identify human remains. Other techniques are only rarely used. Over 40 countries worldwide contributed to the field during the study period. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that scientific publications on forensic and post-mortem radiology grew significantly between the year 2000 and 2011. During this decade, forensic and post-mortem radiology rose from an obscure topic to a relevant field in the forensic sciences. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.