Radiology Offers Clues in Cases of Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault

Medical images sometimes offer early clues that abuse is taking place. In fact, the case that inspired the study’s principal investigator, Bharti Khurana, MD, emergency radiology fellowship program director at Brigham and Women’s Hospital., involved a young woman who arrived at the Emergency Department with an acute nasal bone fracture superimposed on an old, healed fracture. While going through prior medical images of the patient on the hospital’s picture archiving and communication system, or PACS, Dr. Khurana identified a recent wrist fracture. This pattern of recurrent injury made her voice her suspicion of intimate partner violence, a finding the referring physician initially had not suspected.

Source: Medical Xpress