CHICAGO, Nov. 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Radiologic signs of injury could help identify victims of intimate partner violence, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

"Radiologists must be aware that intimate partner abuse is a common public health problem," said study author Elizabeth George, M.D., a radiology resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "It affects one in four women in the United States. So many of the patients we encounter may have this unfortunate story."

Medical images sometimes offer early clues that abuse is taking place. In fact, the case that inspired the study's principal investigator, Bharti Khurana, M.D., 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.
"This also led us to connect with some of our Emergency Department staff physicians and colleagues who were already working on the clinical and social aspects of this issue," Dr. Khurana said. "We went on to design this research study to objectively assess the clinical and radiologic findings in this population."

The study, which reviewed electronic medical records from patients referred to domestic abuse and sexual assault programs from January to October 2016, found characteristic injuries among the patients.

"On the radiologic front, we identified common patterns of injury such as soft tissue injuries and extremity fractures, which often involved the distal upper extremities, suggesting injury from defensive attempts," Dr. George said. "Other commonly seen injuries were facial fractures, which represent an easily accessible area for inflicting trauma. These injury patterns could alert the radiologists to potential intimate partner violence."

A majority of the 87 intimate partner violence victims were female (95 percent) and African-American (40 percent), with a mean age of 34.7 years. A total of 665 radiology exams were performed in this population over five years. The most commonly performed exam was chest X-ray, followed by obstetric ultrasound and musculoskeletal X-rays.

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