title: [Anatomo-clinical discordance: analysis of a series of consecutive autopsies].
abstract: In order to assess the level of agreement between clinical and autopsy diagnoses in the medical wards of a city and teaching hospital, we studied 94 consecutive patients autopsied during a 12 months' period. The rate of autopsy in this study was 59%. The main diagnosis was confirmed at autopsy in 80% of the cases, more precisely defined in 11% and discovered in 9%. Among 124 secondary diagnoses, 34% were diagnosed by the pathologist. The retrospective analysis of the cases in which there was disagreement between clinical and autopsy diagnosis showed that in 8 of them (8.5% of all patients), a clinical impact on survival was possible. However, all of these patients were over 80 and had multiple and/or terminal diseases. Thus, the real impact of these diagnostic errors is debatable.
authors.affiliation: Département de médecine interne, CHUV, Lausanne.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vuichard
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Magnenat
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Schindler
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yersin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001344:Autopsy; D002423:Cause of Death; D015897:Comorbidity; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005260:Female; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013557:Switzerland
vernacular_title: Discordances anatomo-cliniques: analyse d'une série consécutive d'autopsies.