ArticleVirchows Archiv : an international journal of pathology2016
Postmortem CT is more accurate than clinical diagnosis for identifying the immediate cause of death in hospitalized patients: a prospective autopsy-based study.
Article in Virchows Archiv : an international journal of pathology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Postmortem imaging findings and cause of death determination compared with autopsy: a systematic review of diagnostic test accuracy and meta-analysis.International journal of legal medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Postmortem Blood Procalcitonin (PCT) for identifying sepsis as a cause of death: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Review
- Diagnostic accuracy of unenhanced post-mortem CT and MRI compared to the non-forensic clinical autopsy: a prospective blinded study.Virchows Archiv : an international journal of pathology · 2026Article
- Article
- Usefulness of fat attenuation index in postmortem CT for identifying responsible vessels in acute coronary syndromes: A case report.Radiology case reports · 2024Article
- Performance of postmortem CT in the diagnosis of natural death from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.Japanese journal of radiology · 2024Article
- Article
- The discrepancy of antemortem clinical diagnosis and postmortem autopsy diagnosis of lung pathologies in under-five deaths and the reasons for discrepancies: a case series analysis.BMC pediatrics · 2024Article
- Fatal myocardial infarction investigated using contrast-enhanced postmortem computed tomography: A case report.Clinical case reports · 2023Article
- Improved artificial intelligence discrimination of minor histological populations by supplementing with color-adjusted images.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Essence of postmortem computed tomography for in-hospital deaths: what clinical radiologists should know.Japanese journal of radiology · 2023Review
- Exploration of sepsis assisting parameters in hospital autopsied-patients: a prospective study.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The importance of autopsies despite the declining number amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.Autopsy & case reports · 2022Article
- Changes in magnetic resonance imaging relaxation time on postmortem magnetic resonance imaging of formalin-fixed human normal heart tissue.BMC medical imaging · 2021Article
- Clinical Relevance of Unexpected Findings of Post-Mortem Computed Tomography in Hospitalized Patients: An Observational Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Observational
- Article
- Article
- Pathological analysis of cadavers for educational dissection by using postmortem imaging.Pathology international · 2019Article
- State of the art in post-mortem computed tomography: a review of current literature.Virchows Archiv : an international journal of pathology · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite 75 to 90 % physician accuracy in determining the underlying cause of death, precision of determination of the immediate cause of death is approximately 40 %. In contrast, two thirds of immediate causes of death in hospitalized patients are correctly diagnosed by postmortem computed tomography (CT). Postmortem CT might provide an alternative approach to verifying the immediate cause of death. To evaluate the effectiveness of postmortem CT as an alternative method to determine the immediate cause of death in hospitalized patients, an autopsy-based prospective study was performed. Of 563 deaths from September 2011 to August 2013, 50 consecutive cadavers undergoing hospital autopsies with consent for additional postmortem CT at the University of Fukui were enrolled. The accuracy of determination of the immediate cause of death by postmortem CT was evaluated in these patients. Diagnostic discrepancy was also compared between radiologists and attending physicians. The immediate cause of death was correctly diagnosed in 37 of 50 subjects using postmortem CT (74 %), concerning 29 cases of respiratory failure, 4 of hemorrhage, 3 of liver failure and 1 of septic shock. Six cases of organ failure involving 13 patients were not identified as the cause of death by postmortem CT. Regarding the immediate cause of death, accuracy of clinical diagnosis was significantly lower than that of postmortem CT (46 vs 74 %, P < 0.01). Postmortem CT may be more useful than clinical diagnosis for identifying the immediate cause of death in hospitalized patients not undergoing autopsy.
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