National guidelines for adult autopsy cardiac dissection and diagnosis--are they achievable? A personal view.
Adult autopsy cardiac pathology has been previously a quiet backwater of ischaemic heart disease and the occasional cardiomyopathy. This has changed to an increasingly tense area, following recent genetic discoveries and some medicolegal cases. All autopsy pathologists should consider their dissection protocols and check that they are able to deliver the increasingly detailed information that clinicians, geneticists and families require. This text has suggestions about the practical realities of cardiac dissection, cardiac histology and the need for other tests alongside illustrations aimed to assist case consideration.
Suvarna
S K
SK
Department of Histopathology, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Sheffield, UK. s.k.suvarna@shef.ac.uk
D000328:Adult; D001344:Autopsy / Q000379:methods*; D004210:Dissection / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology*