title: Postmortem computed tomography for detecting causes of sudden death in infants and children: retrospective review of cases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) in detecting causes of sudden death in infants and children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our subjects were 15 nontraumatically deceased patients (nine boys and six girls, ranging in age from 20 days after birth to 12 years old, mean age 1.6 years), who had been in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest on arrival at our hospital. PMCT was performed within 2 h after certification of death: head (15 cases), chest (11 cases), and abdomen (12 cases). Blood was collected from 11 of the patients at the time of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. An autopsy was conducted on two.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PMCT did not show any traumatic changes indicating child abuse. It was difficult to presume the cause of death with PMCT alone, but the cause of death in 14 of 15 cases could be presumed by combining information from their medical history, clinical course before death, PMCT findings, laboratory data, and bacterial culture. The remaining subject was classified as cause unknown.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The causes of sudden death in infants and children were detected at a high rate when we comprehensively investigated the PMCT and other examination findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Oyake Children's Clinic, 3-7-19 Higashiishikawa, Hitachinaka 312-0052, Japan. y-oyake@dc4.so-net.ne.jp
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Oyake
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shiotani
authors.forename: Mototsugu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kohno
authors.forename: Noriyoshi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ohashi
authors.forename: Hiroyoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Akutsu
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamazaki
mesh_terms: D001344:Autopsy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D013398:Sudden Infant Death / Q000209:etiology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed