Non-invasive or minimally invasive autopsy compared to conventional autopsy of suspected natural deaths in adults: a systematic review

European Radiology

Volumn 26, Issue 4, 2016, Pages 1159-1179

  Blokker, Britt M ^a   Wagensveld, Ivo M ^a   Weustink, Annick C ^a   Oosterhuis, J Wolter ^a   Hunink, M G Myriam ^a,b  

^a ERASMUS MEDICAL CENTER   (Netherlands)

^b HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH   (United States)

Author keywords

Alternative clinical autopsy; Post mortem biopsies; Post mortem imaging; Systematic review; Validation studies

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; AUTOPSY; CAUSE OF DEATH; COCHRANE LIBRARY; COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHIC ANGIOGRAPHY; COMPUTER ASSISTED TOMOGRAPHY; COST; DEATH; HUMAN; INTERMETHOD COMPARISON; LAPAROSCOPY; MINIMALLY INVASIVE AUTOPSY; NATURAL DEATH; NON INVASIVE AUTOPSY; NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING; PRIORITY JOURNAL; THORACOSCOPY; ADULT; ANGIOGRAPHY; BIOPSY; PROCEDURES; PROSPECTIVE STUDY; X-RAY COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY;

ADULT; ANGIOGRAPHY; AUTOPSY; BIOPSY; CAUSE OF DEATH; HUMANS; PROSPECTIVE STUDIES; TOMOGRAPHY, X-RAY COMPUTED;

EID: 84937860050     PISSN: 09387994     EISSN: 14321084     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s00330-015-3908-8     Document Type: Article

References (71)

1. Burton EC (2002) The autopsy: a professional responsibility in assuring quality of care. Am J Med Qual 17:56–60
2. Lundberg GD (1998) Low-tech autopsies in the era of high-tech medicine: continued value for quality assurance and patient safety. JAMA 280:1273–1274
3. Shojania KG, Burton EC, McDonald KM, Goldman L (2002) The autopsy as an outcome and performance measure. Evid Rep Technol Assess (Summ):1-5.
4. Burton EC, Troxclair DA, Newman WP 3rd (1998) Autopsy diagnoses of malignant neoplasms: how often are clinical diagnoses incorrect? JAMA 280:1245–1248
5. Murken DR, Ding M, Branstetter BF, Nichols L (2012) Autopsy as a quality control measure for radiology, and vice versa. AJR Am J Roentgenol 199:394–401
6. Roulson J, Benbow EW, Hasleton PS (2005) Discrepancies between clinical and autopsy diagnosis and the value of post mortem histology; a meta-analysis and review. Histopathology 47:551–559
7. Scordi-Bello IA, Kalb TH, Lento PA (2010) Clinical setting and extent of premortem evaluation do not predict autopsy discrepancy rates. Mod Pathol 23:1225–1230
8. Shojania KG, Burton EC, McDonald KM, Goldman L (2003) Changes in rates of autopsy-detected diagnostic errors over time: a systematic review. JAMA 289:2849–2856
9. Veress B, Alafuzoff I (1994) A retrospective analysis of clinical diagnoses and autopsy findings in 3,042 cases during two different time periods. Hum Pathol 25:140–145
10. Winters B, Custer J, Galvagno SM et al (2012) Diagnostic errors in the intensive care unit: a systematic review of autopsy studies. Bmj Qual Saf 21:894–902
11. Wittschieber D, Klauschen F, Kimmritz AC et al (2012) Who is at risk for diagnostic discrepancies? Comparison of pre- and postmortal diagnoses in 1800 patients of 3 medical decades in East and West Berlin. PLoS One 7, e37460. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0037460
12. Burton JL, Underwood J (2007) Clinical, educational, and epidemiological value of autopsy. Lancet 369:1471–1480
13. Gaensbacher S, Waldhoer T, Berzlanovich A (2012) The slow death of autopsies: A retrospective analysis of the autopsy prevalence rate in Austria from 1990 to 2009. Eur J Epidemiol 27:577–580
14. Shojania KG, Burton EC (2008) The vanishing nonforensic autopsy. N Engl J Med 358:873–875
15. Brown HG (1990) Perceptions of the autopsy: views from the lay public and program proposals. Hum Pathol 21:154–158
16. Burton JL, Underwood JC (2003) Necropsy practice after the "organ retention scandal": requests, performance, and tissue retention. J Clin Pathol 56:537–541
17. Burton EC, Phillips RS, Covinsky KE et al (2004) The relation of autopsy rate to physicians' beliefs and recommendations regarding autopsy. Am J Med 117:255–261
18. Charlton R (1994) Autopsy and medical education: a review. J R Soc Med 87:232–236
19. Gatrad AR (1994) Muslim customs surrounding death, bereavement, postmortem examinations, and organ transplants. BMJ 309:521–523
20. Hinchliffe SA, Godfrey HW, Hind CR (1994) Attitudes of junior medical staff to requesting permission for autopsy. Postgrad Med J 70:292–294
21. Hull MJ, Nazarian RM, Wheeler AE, Black-Schaffer WS, Mark EJ (2007) Resident physician opinions on autopsy importance and procurement. Hum Pathol 38:342–350
22. Loughrey MB, McCluggage WG, Toner PG (2000) The declining autopsy rate and clinicians' attitudes. Ulster Med J 69:83–89
23. Oluwasola OA, Fawole OI, Otegbayo AJ, Ogun GO, Adebamowo CA, Bamigboye AE (2009) The autopsy: knowledge, attitude, and perceptions of doctors and relatives of the deceased. Arch Pathol Lab Med 133:78–82
24. Tsitsikas DA, Brothwell M, Chin Aleong JA, Lister AT (2011) The attitudes of relatives to autopsy: a misconception. J Clin Pathol 64:412–414
25. Sanchez H, Collins, K.A. (2013) Autopsy Request Process. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1730552-overview - accessed November 19th, 2013.
26. Ayoub T, Chow J (2008) The conventional autopsy in modern medicine. J R Soc Med 101:177–181
27. Brookes JAS, HallCraggs MA, Sams VR, Lees WR (1996) Non-invasive perinatal necropsy by magnetic resonance imaging. Lancet 348:1139–1141
28. Griffiths PD, Paley MNJ, Whitby EH (2005) Post-mortern MRI as an adjunct to fetal or neonatal autopsy. Lancet 365:1271–1273
29. Leth PM (2007) The Use of CT Scanning in Forensic Autopsy. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 3:65–69
30. Dirnhofer R, Jackowski C, Vock P, Potter K, Thali MJ (2006) VIRTOPSY: minimally invasive, imaging-guided virtual autopsy. Radiographics 26:1305–1333
31. Ebert LC, Ptacek W, Naether S et al (2010) Virtobot--a multi-functional robotic system for 3D surface scanning and automatic post mortem biopsy. Int J Med Robot 6:18–27
32. Thali MJ, Yen K, Schweitzer W et al (2003) Virtopsy, a new imaging horizon in forensic pathology: virtual autopsy by postmortem multislice computed tomography (MSCT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)--a feasibility study. J Forensic Sci 48:386–403
33. Le Blanc-Louvry I, Thureau S, Duval C et al (2013) Post-mortem computed tomography compared to forensic autopsy findings: a French experience. Eur Radiol 23:1829–1835
34. Ruder TD, Hatch GM, Ebert LC et al (2012) Whole Body Postmortem Magnetic Resonance Angiography. J Forensic Sci 57:778–782
35. http://handbook.cochrane.org/ - accessed on the 17th of July, 2013.
36. Liberati A, Altman DG, Tetzlaff J, et al. (2009) The PRISMA Statement for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Studies That Evaluate Health Care Interventions: Explanation and Elaboration. Plos Medicine, 6. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000100
37. Roberts ISD, Benamore RE, Benbow EW et al (2012) Post-mortem imaging as an alternative to autopsy in the diagnosis of adult deaths: A validation study. Lancet 379:136–142
38. Takahashi N, Higuchi T, Shiotani M et al (2012) The effectiveness of postmortem multidetector computed tomography in the detection of fatal findings related to cause of non-traumatic death in the emergency department. Eur Radiol 22:152–160
39. Westphal SE, Apitzsch J, Penzkofer T, Mahnken AH, Knuchel R (2012) Virtual CT autopsy in clinical pathology: Feasibility in clinical autopsies. Virchows Arch 461:211–219
40. Farina J, Millana C, Fdez-Acenero JM et al (2002) Ultrasonographic autopsy (echopsy): A new autopsy technique. Virchows Arch 440:635–639
41. Farina J, Millana C (1998) Applications of ultrasonography on the post-mortem examination (ecopsy) in humans. J Echogr Med Ultrasons 19:280–286
42. Huston BM, Malouf NN, Azar HA (1996) Percutaneous needle autopsy sampling. MOD PATHOL 9:1101–1107
43. Ross SG, Thali MJ, Bolliger S, Germerott T, Ruder TD, Flach PM (2012) Sudden death after chest pain: Feasibility of virtual autopsy with postmortem CT angiography and biopsy. Radiology 264:250–259
44. Bolliger SA, Filograna L, Spendlove D, Thali MJ, Dirnhofer S, Ross S (2010) Postmortem imaging-guided biopsy as an adjuvant to minimally invasive autopsy with CT and postmortem angiography: A feasibility study. Am J Roentgenol 195:1051–1056
45. Puranik RGB, Lackey H, Yeates L, Parker G, Duflou J, Semsarian C (2014) Comparison of conventional autopsy and magnetic resonance imaging in determining the cause of sudden death in the young. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson 16:44
46. Wichmann D, Obbelode F, Vogel H et al (2012) Virtual autopsy as an alternative to traditional medical autopsy in the intensive care unit; A prospective cohort study. Ann Intern Med 156:123–130
47. Roberts ISD, Benbow EW, Bisset R et al (2003) Accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging in determining cause of sudden death in adults: Comparison with conventional autopsy. Histopathology 42:424–430
48. Patriquin L, Kassarjian A, O'Brien M, Andry C, Eustace S (2001) Postmortem whole-body magnetic resonance imaging as an adjunct to autopsy: Preliminary clinical experience. J Magn Reson Imaging 13:277–287
49. Wichmann D, Heinemann A, Weinberg C et al (2014) Virtual Autopsy With Multiphase Postmortem Computed Tomographic Angiography Versus Traditional Medical Autopsy to Investigate Unexpected Deaths of Hospitalized Patients. Ann Intern Med 160:534
50. Weustink AC, Hunink MGM, Van Dijke CF, Renken NS, Krestin GP, Oosterhuis JW (2009) Minimally invasive autopsy: An alternative to conventional autopsy? Radiology 250:897–904
51. Fan JKM, Tong DKH, Poon JTC et al (2010) Multimodality minimally invasive autopsy-A feasible and accurate approach to post-mortem examination. Forensic Sci Int 195:93–98
52. Cacchione RN, Sayad P, Pecoraro AM, Ferzli GS (2001) Laparoscopic autopsies. Surg Endosc 15:619–622
53. Thayyil S, Chandrasekaran M, Chitty LS et al (2010) Diagnostic accuracy of post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging in fetuses, children and adults: a systematic review. Eur J Radiol 75:e142–e148
54. Bolliger SA, Thali MJ, Ross S, Buck U, Naether S, Vock P (2008) Virtual autopsy using imaging: bridging radiologic and forensic sciences. A review of the Virtopsy and similar projects. Eur Radiol 18:273–282
55. Flach PM, Thali MJ, Germerott T (2014) Times have changed! Forensic radiology--a new challenge for radiology and forensic pathology. AJR Am J Roentgenol 202:W325–W334
56. Avrahami R, Watemberg S, Daniels-Philips E, Kahana T, Hiss J (1995) Endoscopic autopsy. Am J Forensic Med Pathol 16:147–150
57. Saunders SL, Morgan B, Raj V, Rutty GN (2011) Post-mortem computed tomography angiography: Past, present and future. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 7:271–277
58. Roberts ISD, Benamore RE, Peebles C, Roobottomd C, Traill ZC (2011) Diagnosis of coronary artery disease using minimally invasive autopsy: evaluation of a novel method of post-mortem coronary CT angiography. Clin Radiol 66:645–650
59. Saunders SL, Morgan B, Raj V, Robinson CE, Rutty GN (2011) Targeted post-mortem computed tomography cardiac angiography: proof of concept. Int J Legal Med 125:609–616
60. Germerott T, Preiss US, Ebert LC et al (2010) A new approach in virtopsy: Postmortem ventilation in multislice computed tomography. Leg Med (Tokyo) 12:276–279
61. Robinson C, Biggs MJ, Amoroso J, Pakkal M, Morgan B, Rutty GN (2014) Post-mortem computed tomography ventilation; simulating breath holding. Int J Legal Med 128:139–146
62. Rutty GN, Biggs MJP, Brough A et al (2015) Ventilated post-mortem computed tomography through the use of a definitive airway. Int J Legal Med 129:325–334
63. Christe A, Ross S, Oesterhelweg L et al (2009) Abdominal Trauma-Sensitivity and Specificity of Postmortem Noncontrast Imaging Findings Compared With Autopsy Findings. J Trauma-Inj Infect Crit Care 66:1302–1307
64. Burton JL, Rutty GN The Hospital Autopsy: A Manual of Fundamental Autopsy Practice (Hodder Arnold Publication). CRC Press; 3 edition (25 Jun 2010).
65. Michaud K, Grabherr S, Jackowski C, Bollmann MD, Doenz F, Mangin P (2013) Postmortem imaging of sudden cardiac death. Int J Legal Med. doi:10.1007/s00414-013-0819-6
66. Jackowski C, Schweitzer W, Thali M et al (2005) Virtopsy: Postmortem imaging of the human heart in situ using MSCT and MRI. Forensic Sci Int 149:11–23
67. Bruguier C, Mosimann PJ, Vaucher P et al (2013) Multi-phase postmortem CT angiography: recognizing technique-related artefacts and pitfalls. Int J Legal Med 127:639–652
68. Fryer EP, Traill ZC, Benamore RE, Roberts IS (2013) High risk medicolegal autopsies: is a full postmortem examination necessary? J Clin Pathol 66:1–7
69. van der Linden A, Blokker BM, Kap M, Weustink AC, Riegman PH, Oosterhuis JW (2014) Post-Mortem Tissue Biopsies Obtained at Minimally Invasive Autopsy: An RNA-Quality Analysis. PLoS One 9, e115675. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0115675
70. Ebert LC, Ptacek W, Furst M, Ross S, Thali MJ, Hatch G (2012) Minimally invasive postmortem telebiopsy. J Forensic Sci 57:528–530
71. Lundstrom C, Persson A, Ross S et al (2012) State-of-the-art of visualization in post-mortem imaging. Apmis 120:316–326