Observational studyPLoS medicine2016
Validity of a Minimally Invasive Autopsy for Cause of Death Determination in Adults in Mozambique: An Observational Study.
Observational study in PLoS medicine, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 79 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
79 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 171 citations in OpenAlex.
- Validation of malaria-attributed deaths using verbal autopsy studies: a systematic review.Malaria journal · 2024Pooled it
- Prospective postmortem evaluation of 735 consecutive SARS-CoV-2-associated death cases.Scientific reports · 2021Pooled it
- Microbiology in minimally invasive autopsy: best techniques to detect infection. ESGFOR (ESCMID study group of forensic and post-mortem microbiology) guidelines.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2021Guideline
- Cytomegalovirus Viremia Is Strongly Associated With 6-Month Mortality Among Adults Living With Advanced HIV Disease: A Prospective Cohort Study in South Africa.Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Assessing the effectiveness of embalming in cadavers with COVID-19 after full autopsy and minimally invasive autopsy.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2026Article
- Tissue distribution of Histoplasma capsulatum in deceased people living with HIV assessed by minimally invasive tissue sampling: An autopsy-based case series in the Brazilian Amazon.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Observational
- Rationale and Design of the MIA Trial: A Proof-of-Concept Study of Minimally Invasive Autopsy in an Infectious Cause of Death in a Scandinavian ICU Setting.APMIS : acta pathologica, microbiologica, et immunologica Scandinavica · 2026Review
- Post-mortem ultrasound for detecting major fluid collections: a systematic review.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2026Review
- Accelerating Proficiency in Minimally Invasive Autopsy for Infectious Disease Diagnosis and Research: A Strategic Framework.Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical · 2026Observational
- Knowledge, acceptability, and attitudes regarding minimally invasive tissue sampling (MITS) techniques in Brazil.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Diagnostic accuracy of a simplified minimally invasive tissue sampling protocol for stillbirths in low-resource settings.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Percutaneous core needle biopsy guided by ultrasound: a narrative review.Journal of ultrasound · 2025Review
- Etiologies and comorbidities of meningitis deaths in children under 5 years in high-mortality settings: Insights from the CHAMPS Network in the post-pneumococcal vaccine era.The Journal of infection · 2024Observational
- Concordance between MITS and conventional autopsies for pathological and virological diagnoses.International journal of legal medicine · 2024Article
- Postmortem minimally invasive tissue sampling in communities: exploring perceptions of families, funeral workers, religious and community leaders and healthcare providers from Pakistan.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Determination of causes of adult deaths using minimally invasive tissue sampling in Gandaki province of Nepal: a multicenter hospital-based study.European journal of medical research · 2023Article
- Minimally Invasive Tissue Sampling via Post Mortem Ultrasound: A Feasible Tool (Not Only) in Infectious Diseases-A Case Report.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Causes of stillbirth and death among children younger than 5 years in eastern Hararghe, Ethiopia: a population-based post-mortem study.The Lancet. Global health · 2023Article
- Knowledge and attitudes toward complete diagnostic autopsy and minimally invasive autopsy: A cross-sectional survey in Hanoi, Vietnam.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- What else in times of COVID-19? The role of minimally invasive autopsy for the differential diagnosis of acute respiratory failure in a case of kala-azar.Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo · 2023Article
19 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
25 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere is an urgent need to identify tools able to provide reliable information on the cause of death in low-income regions, since current methods (verbal autopsy, clinical records, and complete autopsies) are either inaccurate, not feasible, or poorly accepted. We aimed to compare the performance of a standardized minimally invasive autopsy (MIA) approach with that of the gold standard, the complete diagnostic autopsy (CDA), in a series of adults who died at Maputo Central Hospital in Mozambique. METHODS AND
findingsIn this observational study, coupled MIAs and CDAs were performed in 112 deceased patients. The MIA analyses were done blindly, without knowledge of the clinical data or the results of the CDA. We compared the MIA diagnosis with the CDA diagnosis of cause of death. CDA diagnoses comprised infectious diseases (80; 71.4%), malignant tumors (16; 14.3%), and other diseases, including non-infectious cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, kidney, and lung diseases (16; 14.3%). A MIA diagnosis was obtained in 100/112 (89.2%) cases. The overall concordance between the MIA diagnosis and CDA diagnosis was 75.9% (85/112). The concordance was higher for infectious diseases and malignant tumors (63/80 [78.8%] and 13/16 [81.3%], respectively) than for other diseases (9/16; 56.2%). The specific microorganisms causing death were identified in the MIA in 62/74 (83.8%) of the infectious disease deaths with a recognized cause. The main limitation of the analysis is that both the MIA and the CDA include some degree of expert subjective interpretation.
conclusionsA simple MIA procedure can identify the cause of death in many adult deaths in Mozambique. This tool could have a major role in improving the understanding and surveillance of causes of death in areas where infectious diseases are a common cause of mortality.
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