SynthesisBMJ open2023
Are non-invasive or minimally invasive autopsy techniques for detecting cause of death in prenates, neonates and infants accurate? A systematic review of diagnostic test accuracy.
Synthesis in BMJ open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Does paraspinal muscle morphometry predict functional status and re-operation after lumbar spinal surgery? A systematic review and meta-analysis.European radiology · 2023Pooled it
- Perinatal Deaths: Autopsy Findings and Medico-Legal Evaluation from a Forensic Medicine Perspective.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Perinatal Deaths in Suriname: A Nationwide Cohort Study on Causes of Death and Lessons Learned from Facility-Based Audits.Maternal and child health journal · 2026Article
- Postmortem diagnostics in sudden unexpected death in infants and children: use and utility.European journal of pediatrics · 2025Observational
- Post-mortem Cardiac MRI in Sudden Cardiac Death: The Interesting Intertwining of Radiology and Histology to Diagnose Arrhythmic Death or Myocardial Infarction.Current medical imaging · 2025Article
- Spectrum of Brain Imaging with 3T MRI for Infants with History of Perinatal Hypoxia and their Comparison with 128 Slice NCCT Images.Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciences · 2024Article
- Whole-body non-forensic fetal virtopsy using postmortem magnetic resonance imaging at 7 Tesla vs classical autopsy.Ultrasound in obstetrics & gynecology : the official journal of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology · 2024Article
- 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
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo assess the diagnostic accuracy of non-invasive or minimally invasive autopsy techniques in deaths under 1 year of age.
designThis is a systematic review of diagnostic test accuracy. The protocol is registered on PROSPERO.
participantsDeaths from conception to one adjusted year of age. SEARCH
methodsMEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), the Cochrane Library, Scopus and grey literature sources were searched from inception to November 2021. DIAGNOSTIC TESTS: Non-invasive or minimally invasive diagnostic tests as an alternative to traditional autopsy. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Studies were included if participants were under one adjusted year of age, with index tests conducted prior to the reference standard.Data were extracted from eligible studies using piloted forms. Risk of bias was assessed using Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2. A narrative synthesis was conducted following the Synthesis without Meta-Analysis guidelines. Vote counting was used to assess the direction of effect.
main outcome measuresDirection of effect was expressed as percentage of patients per study.
findingsWe included 54 direct evidence studies (68 articles/trials), encompassing 3268 cases and eight index tests. The direction of effect was positive for postmortem ultrasound and antenatal echography, although with varying levels of success. Conversely, the direction of effect was against virtual autopsy. For the remaining tests, the direction of effect was inconclusive.A further 134 indirect evidence studies (135 articles/trials) were included, encompassing 6242 perinatal cases. The addition of these results had minimal impact on the direct findings yet did reveal other techniques, which may be favourable alternatives to autopsy.Seven trial registrations were included but yielded no results.
conclusionsCurrent evidence is insufficient to make firm conclusions about the generalised use of non-invasive or minimally invasive autopsy techniques in relation to all perinatal population groups.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42021223254.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.