Quantitative MRI molecular imaging in the evaluation of early post mortem changes in muscles. A feasibility study on a pig phantom

Estimating early postmortem interval EPI is a difficult task in daily forensic activity due to limitations of accurate and reliable methods. The aim of the present work is to describe a novel approach in the estimation of EPI based on quantitative magnetic resonance molecular imaging qMRMI using a pig phantom since post mortem degradation of pig meat is similar to that of human muscles. On a pig phantom maintained at 20 degree, using a 1.5 T MRI scanner we performed 10 scans, every 4 hours, moni...