Getting the picture of how someone died

By screening people who have died with full-body computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, doctors can often determine the cause of death without an autopsy, British researchers report November 22 in the Lancet. Further combining a CT scan with a quick heart test might result in a solid determination of cause of death in up to half of cases referred for autopsy, says study coauthor Ian Roberts, a pathologist at the University of Oxford.