Radiographics : a review publication of the Radiological Society of North America, Inc
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Ancient Egyptian and Peruvian mummies are extremely valuable historical remains, and noninvasive methods for their examination are desirable. The current standard of reference for radiologic imaging of mummies is computed tomography (CT), with tissue having a homogeneous appearance on all CT images. It was long believed that ancient mummified tissue could not be studied with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging because of the low water content in mummies. ⋯ CT was found to provide superior detail of the anatomic structures, mainly because of its higher spatial resolution. The signal intensity of mummified tissue varied greatly on MR images; thus, the quality of these images is not yet comparable to that of clinical MR images, and further research will be needed to determine the full capacity of MR imaging in this setting. Nevertheless, additional information may theoretically be obtained with MR imaging, which should be viewed as complementary to, rather than a replacement for, CT.