CHICAGO -- Egyptian radiologists who performed the first-ever computed tomography (CT) evaluation of King Tutankhamuns mummy believe they have solved the mystery of how the ancient pharaoh died. The CT images and results of their study were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Ashraf Selim, M.D., radiologist at Kasr Eleini Teaching Hospital, Cairo University in Egypt, was part of an international team of scientists that studied the 3,300-year-old mummy of King Tut in Egypt. Using a mobile multi-detector CT scanner, the researchers performed a full-body scan on the king's remains, obtaining approximately 1,900 digital cross-sectional images.

"We found the mummy was in a critical stage of preservation," said Dr. Selim. "The body was cut into several parts with some missing pieces."

With the help of the CT images, researchers estimated King Tut's age at death to be between 18 and 20 years. His height was 180 centimeters or approximately 5 feet 11 inches. The researchers discovered a possible premortem fracture to the femoral (thigh) bone. While they cannot assess how the injury occurred, the findings suggest that the injury may have been an open wound that became infected and ultimately fatal.

Since King Tut was first examined by x-ray in 1968, revealing what appeared to be a bone fragment in his skull, it has been widely speculated that a blow to the head killed the boy king. However, Dr. Selim and colleagues found several pieces of evidence to the contrary. In the cranial cavity, they found loose bone fragments that were not covered with the intracranial solidified embalming material. These bone fragments matched exactly a defect within the first vertebra in the neck. They found no evidence of skull fractures.

A mishap during the mummification process, or even damage incurred during that first x-ray examination may explain the misplacedand misleadingbone fragm
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Contact: Maureen Morley
mmorley@rsna.org
630-590-7762
Radiological Society of North America
27-Nov-2006