ArticleBMC pediatrics2022
Post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging with computed tomography-guided biopsy for foetuses and infants: a prospective, multicentre, cross-sectional study.
Article in BMC pediatrics, 2022. 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 7 papers.
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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.
Post-mortem Cross-sectional Imaging With Guided Biopsy; A Comparative Study With Conventional Autopsy in Foetuses, Neonates, Infants and Children
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Is There Potential Clinical Utility in Reporting Variants of Uncertain Significance From Prenatal Sequencing?Prenatal diagnosis · 2026Article
- First experience with 0.31 Tesla low-field MRI in post-mortem fetal examinations.International journal of legal medicine · 2026Article
- The Current Status of Virtual Autopsy Using Combined Imaging Modalities: A Scoping Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Causes of death in adults living with HIV in South Africa: A single-centre postmortem study.Southern African journal of HIV medicine · 2025Article
- VIRTual autOPSY-applying CT and MRI for modern forensic death investigations.Frontiers in radiology · 2025Review
- Diagnostic value of TForensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2024Article
- Current State of Robotics in Interventional Radiology.Cardiovascular and interventional radiology · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPost-mortem imaging has been suggested as an alternative to conventional autopsy in the prenatal and postnatal periods. Noninvasive autopsies do not provide tissue for histological examination, which may limit their clinical value, especially when infection-related morbidity and mortality are suspected.
methodsWe performed a prospective, multicentre, cross-sectional study to compare the diagnostic performance of post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging with computed tomography-guided biopsy (Virtopsy®) with that of conventional autopsy in foetuses and infants. Cases referred for conventional autopsy were eligible for enrolment. After post-mortem imaging using a computed tomography scanner and a magnetic resonance imaging unit, computed tomography-guided tissue sampling was performed. Virtopsy results were compared with conventional autopsy in determining the likely final cause of death and major pathologies. The primary outcome was the proportion of cases for which the same cause of death was determined by both methods. Secondary outcomes included the proportion of false positive and false negative major pathological lesions detected by virtopsy and the proportion of computed tomography-guided biopsies that were adequate for histological examination.
resultsOverall, 101 cases (84 fetuses, 17 infants) were included. Virtopsy and autopsy identified the same cause of death in 91 cases (90.1%, 95% CI 82.7 to 94.5). The sensitivity and specificity of virtopsy for determining the cause of death were 96.6% (95% CI 90.6 to 98.8) and 41.7% (95% CI 19.3 to 68.0), respectively. In 32 cases (31.7%, 95% CI 23.4 to 41.3), major pathological findings remained undetected by virtopsy, and in 45 cases (44.6%, 95% CI 35.2 to 54.3), abnormalities were diagnosed by virtopsy but not confirmed by autopsy. Computed tomography-guided tissue sampling was adequate for pathological comments in 506 of 956 biopsies (52.7%) and added important diagnostic value in five of 30 cases (16.1%) with an unclear cause of death before autopsy compared with postmortem imaging alone. In 19 of 20 infective deaths (95%), biopsies revealed infection-related tissue changes. Infection was confirmed by placental examination in all fetal cases.
conclusionsVirtopsy demonstrated a high concordance with conventional autopsy for the detection of cause of death but was less accurate for the evaluation of major pathologies. Computed tomography-guided biopsy had limited additional diagnostic value.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01888380).
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