A minimally invasive autopsy can detect a person’s cause of death as well as a conventional autopsy, according to a new study published by Radiology. They can also result in a more helpful postmortem diagnosis.
Researchers compared the performance of minimally invasive autopsies—which involve postmortem CT and MR visualization, as well as CT-guided biopsies when necessary—with the performance of a conventional autopsy in 99 human bodies. Overall, the two approaches had similar results when it came to detecting the cause of death—agreement between minimally invasive autopsy and conventional autopsy in 92 percent of cases.
However, the minimally invasive method did outperform the conventional method in another way. Between the 99 bodies, there were a total of 288 major diagnoses related to the consensus cause of death. A minimally invasive autopsy diagnosed 90 percent, and conventional autopsy diagnosed just 78 percent.
“With minimally invasive autopsy, the body is investigated from top to toe, and with regular autopsy usually only the torso and, if consented by next-of-kin, the brain,” senior author J. Wolter Oosterhuis, MD, PhD, Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said in a prepared statement. “Moreover, postmortem CT and MRI demonstrate pathology, in particular of the skeleton and soft tissues, that is easily missed by the regular autopsy.”
This minimally invasive approach, Oosterhuis added, also helps preserve the body.
“It's very important to note that conventional autopsy cannot be redone, and items that were overlooked or misinterpreted cannot be corrected,” he said in the same statement. “Minimally invasive autopsy, on the other hand, provides a permanent record of the entire body that can be revisited, and reanalyzed by pathologists, radiologists, clinicians and next-of-kin. For scientists, this dependable database has great potential for future research.”
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.