The use of magnetic resonance in the hospital and coronial pediatric postmortem examination

Abstract

The role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has rapidly progressed from being a research tool to an ancillary pre-autopsy imaging technique and now an adjunct of the postmortem (PM) examination. In this review, we describe our experience with the use of PM MRI over the last 6 years in more than 300 fetal PM examinations, initially as research and finally the most recent use in 30 pediatric coronial autopsies. The pediatric pathologist and the neonatal and fetal radiologist retrospectively measured the impact on diagnosis at each stage of the development of the technique together. All imaging techniques have the advantage of being non-invasive, more acceptable to the public, especially certain religious groups and provide a permanent record of the features observed.

Assessing the use of magnetic resonance imaging virtopsy as an alternative to autopsy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Cohen and Whitby13 reported patient numbers of 250; however, the results were given as percentages, which meant after rounding that only a total of 249 patients were accounted for. A request was made to the authors for the results with patient numbers, but was unsuccessful.…”

The Use of Rapid Prototyping in Clinical Applications

“…In particular, MR has been indicated as a viable alternative to invasive autopsies (Thayyil et al, 2009). At the same time, in the unfortunate case of neonatal or foetal autopsies, this sort of non-invasive examination is also more acceptable for parents, as it avoids dissection of the body (Brookes et al, 1996;Cohen et al, 2007;Griffiths et al, 2005). A recent study from our group has highlighted the potential of rapid prototyping technology for foetal and infant anatomical reconstructions from post mortem MR images.…”

Minimally invasive fetal postmortem examination using magnetic resonance imaging and computerised tomography: current evidence and practical issues

“…Nevertheless, several research groups have subsequently performed PM MRI scanning in groups of selected cases and have reported its use in small studies (Woodward et al, 1997;Huisman et al, 2002;Alderliesten et al, 2003;Griffiths et al, 2003;Breeze et al, 2006;Brookes and Hagmann, 2006;Widjaja et al, 2006;Cohen and Whitby, 2007;Hagmann et al, 2007;Cohen et al, 2008; Table 1). With recent renewed interest in the possibility of the development of less invasive postmortem examination, for the reasons described earlier, the need for evidence regarding the accuracy of PM MRI has regained its importance.…”