It will likely be several weeks before the full conclusions of the autopsy of Terri Schiavo will be available, according to Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, the Allegheny County coroner.

Wecht said that the post-mortem examination, which was requested by Michael Schiavo and is also required by Florida law, should answer the central question of the case, the extent of Terri's Schiavo's brain function.

It is unlikely, however, to prove or refute some of the other sensational charges that surrounded the controversy over the roots of her heart attack some 15 years ago.

"You're not going to get any answers of a definitive nature [on brain function] for a minimum of two and more likely three to four weeks," said Wecht, a national expert on forensic pathology.

Wecht said it would be two weeks before the most crucial examination of the brain could even begin. In the interim, he explained, it must be immersed or "fixed" in a chemical solution as a prelude to the detailed scrutiny that is likely to determine which of the conflicting portrayals of her mental capacity were more accurate -- whether, as her husband and a variety of court-appointed experts maintained, she was in a persistent vegetative state or whether, as her parents, the Schindlers, contended, the recognition and reactions suggested by the widely broadcast videotape were genuine and not mere reflexes.

In that examination, pieces of tissue will be removed from the brain and examined for damage. Because doctors and scientists know which areas of the brain control which functions that scrutiny should shed light on what mental functions Terri Schiavo retained.

"While not absolutely definitive, they will be able to determine with a high degree of reasonable medical certainty," Wecht said.

"What they will not be able to do is say is what the etiology of cardiac arrest was back in 1990," Wecht added, pointing to another much debated question on the contentious case.

The parents and some of their supporters repeatedly raised questions about Michael Schiavo's conduct toward his wife, charges bitterly denounced by Michael and his brother Brian.

Terri Schiavo collapsed after a potassium imbalance, possibly related to an eating disorder, that stopped her heart and the flow of oxygen to her brain.

Wecht said that while no new evidence on the cause of the collapse could be expected, bone scans would be able to find evidence of any healed bone breaks.

"You won't be able to tell if they happened pre-heart attack or if they occurred a couple of years ago, say, from falling out of bed," Wecht said.

Wecht, a veteran of medical/legal controversies, forecasts that the medical examiner's findings are unlikely to still this years-old controversy.

"I predict, I hope I'm wrong, that in the weeks and the years ahead they'll continue to debate these questions, regardless of the scientific findings," he said.