Trial reportBMC pediatrics2014
Minimally invasive, imaging guided virtual autopsy compared to conventional autopsy in foetal, newborn and infant cases: study protocol for the paediatric virtual autopsy trial.
Trial report in BMC pediatrics, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01888380 (Post-mortem Cross-sectional Imaging With Guided Biopsy; A Comparative Study With Conventional Autopsy in Foetuses, Neonates, Infants and Children), which is not on this map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Post-mortem Cross-sectional Imaging With Guided Biopsy; A Comparative Study With Conventional Autopsy in Foetuses, Neonates, Infants and Children
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Postmortem computed tomography angiography (PMCTA) and traditional autopsy in cases of sudden cardiac death due to coronary artery disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.La Radiologia medica · 2019Pooled it
- Interventions for investigating and identifying the causes of stillbirth.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- The current state of forensic imaging - post mortem imaging.International journal of legal medicine · 2025Review
- 'Moving towards understanding', acceptability of investigations following stillbirth in sub-Saharan Africa: A grounded theory study.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2023Article
- Investigation of text-mining methodologies to aid the construction of search strategies in systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy-a case study.Research synthesis methods · 2023Article
- Post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging with computed tomography-guided biopsy for foetuses and infants: a prospective, multicentre, cross-sectional study.BMC pediatrics · 2022Article
- Understanding the complexities of unexplained stillbirth in sub-Saharan Africa: a mixed-methods study.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2021Article
- Perinatal post-mortem ultrasound (PMUS): radiological-pathological correlation.Insights into imaging · 2019Review
- Comparison of Minimally Invasive Tissue Sampling With Conventional Autopsy to Detect Pulmonary Pathology Among Respiratory Deaths in a Resource-Limited Setting.American journal of clinical pathology · 2019Article
- "Donating our bodies to science": A discussion about autopsy and organ donation in Turner syndrome.American journal of medical genetics. Part C, Seminars in medical genetics · 2019Review
- [Clinical autopsies in Switzerland : A status report].Der Pathologe · 2017Review
- Value of postmortem studies in deceased neonatal and pediatric intensive care unit patients.Virchows Archiv : an international journal of pathology · 2017Article
- ESPR postmortem imaging task force: where we begin.Pediatric radiology · 2016Review
- Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging in children: technique and clinical applications.Pediatric radiology · 2016Review
- Fetal echopsy (ultrasonographic autopsy) of an acardius myelancephalus and its correlation with antenatal ultrasonographic findings.The Indian journal of radiology & imagingArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn light of declining autopsy rates around the world, post-mortem MR imaging is a promising alternative to conventional autopsy in the investigation of infant death. A major drawback of this non-invasive autopsy approach is the fact that histopathological and microbiological examination of the tissue is not possible. The objective of this prospective study is to compare the performance of minimally invasive, virtual autopsy, including CT-guided biopsy, with conventional autopsy procedures in a paediatric population. METHODS/
designFoetuses, newborns and infants that are referred for autopsy at three different institutions associated with the University of Zurich will be eligible for recruitment. All bodies will be examined with a commercial CT and a 3 Tesla MRI scanner, masked to the results of conventional autopsy. After cross-sectional imaging, CT-guided tissue sampling will be performed by a multifunctional robotic system (Virtobot) allowing for automated post-mortem biopsies. Virtual autopsy results will be classified with regards to the likely final diagnosis and major pathological findings and compared to the results of conventional autopsy, which remains the diagnostic gold standard. DISCUSSION: There is an urgent need for the development of alternative post-mortem examination methods, not only as a counselling tool for families and as a quality control measure for clinical diagnosis and treatment but also as an instrument to advance medical knowledge and clinical practice. This interdisciplinary study will determine whether virtual autopsy will narrow the gap in information between non-invasive and traditional autopsy procedures.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01888380.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.