Autopsy rates have been in decline for the last half of the century. On the other hand, advanced technology does not seem to have reduced clinical errors. Autopsy retains a role in the evaluation of clinical practice, but its value is under consideration. The aim of the study was to determine the rates of disparity between clinical diagnosis and autopsy findings.

INTRODUCTION Hospital autopsies, vanishing worldwide, need to be requested by clinicians and consented to by next-of-kin. The aim of this prospective observational study was to examine how often and why clinicians do not request an autopsy, and for what reasons next-of-kin allow, or refuse it. METHODS Clinicians at the Erasmus University Medical Centre were asked to complete a questionnaire w...

Verbal autopsy is an interview-based technique to determine the cause distribution of death in a population. The use of verbal autopsy for understanding neurological diseases is crucial to burden of disease analyses in many countries, particularly in locations where civil registration systems are non-functioning or absent. We review the purposes, strengths, and weaknesses in the use of verbal a...

We read with interest the report by Tsitsikas and colleagues about the attitudes of relatives to autopsy in a division of lymphoid malignancies. Their report shows that the attitude of the general public is positive overall and translates into high autopsy rates when the value of the examination is presented honestly and the details of the procedure are adequately explained. We would like to ad...

OBJECTIVE We challenge epidemiologic knowledge regarding ovarian carcinoma (OC) by bridging the gap between clinical and autopsy data. METHODS Autopsy reports, histological slides and clinical files from 660 patients in whom OC was diagnosed from 1975-2005 were studied (autopsy cohort, n=233; Clinical Cancer Registry from the local gyneco-oncologic center, n=427). RESULTS Out of the autopsy...

BACKGROUND Verbal autopsy has been widely used to estimate causes of death in settings with inadequate vital registries, but little is known about its validity. This analysis was part of Addis Ababa Mortality Surveillance Program to examine the validity of verbal autopsy for determining causes of death compared with hospital medical records among adults in the urban setting of Ethiopia. METHO...

OBJECTIVE Minimally invasive autopsy using post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a valid alternative to conventional autopsy in fetuses and infants. Estimation of brain weight is an integral part of autopsy, but manual segmentation of organ volumes on MRI is labor intensive and prone to errors, therefore unsuitable for routine clinical practice. In this paper we aim to show that volum...

Western Europe is in a demographic transition with increasing multicultural societies. Health professionals have to understand the background, religious and cultural aspects of parents to counsel them regarding an autopsy in the event of a perinatal loss. Autopsy rates have declined over the past decades, the major limiting factor being the granting of permission for an autopsy, possibly becaus...

Hypothesizing that non-significant cerebrovascular lesions on structural brain imaging lead to overdiagnosis of a vascular etiology of dementia as compared to autopsy-confirmed diagnosis, we set up a study including 71 patients with autopsy-confirmed diagnoses. Forty-two patients in the population (59%) appeared to have definite Alzheimer's disease (AD), whereas 29 (41%) had a non-AD dementia f...

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main source(s): the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research Sigrid Jusélius Introduction The risk sudden cardiac death (SCD) increases with ageing. Methods We evaluated causes and characteristics unexpected SCD in victims aged ≥ 80 years a consecutive series 5,869 who underwent medico-legal autopsy. Results Among year...