title: Performance of post-mortem CT compared to autopsy in children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Radiological techniques such as non-enhanced post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) play an increasingly important role in death investigations, especially in cases of non-medicolegal context of death, where the consent of the next of kin is required to perform autopsy. Such consent is often difficult to obtain for deceased children, and radiological methods may be an acceptable alternative. The aim of our study was to evaluate the performance of PMCT explorations compared to medicolegal conventional autopsies in children and its potential usefulness in non-medicolegal situations.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively reviewed a group of 26 children aged 0-12 years who died of different causes, which were investigated by both conventional autopsy and PMCT. We compared the findings extracted from radiological and autopsy reports. All findings were grouped according to their importance with respect to cause of death and to the anatomical structure they covered: organs, vascular system, soft tissue, and skeletal system.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significantly larger number of findings were detected by autopsy compared to PMCT. Autopsy proved to be superior to PMCT, notably at detecting organ, soft tissue, and vascular findings, while PMCT was superior at detecting bone findings. However, no statistically significant differences were found between the methods concerning the essential findings used to define the cause of death.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In children, PMCT was less sensitive than conventional autopsy for detecting general findings. However, most essential findings were detected by both methods. PMCT was superior to autopsy for the detection of bone lesions in children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Up to today, very rare literature exists concerning PMCT in children, especially in a forensic setting. This article investigates the advantages and limitations of PMCT compared to autopsy in a unique study group and discusses possibilities for future developments.
authors.affiliation: University Center of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, University Hospital of Lausanne, Chemin de la Vulliette 4, 1000, Lausanne 25, Switzerland.|Department of Pathology, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Beatriz V
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Krentz
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Leonor
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Alamo
authors.affiliation: University Center of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, University Hospital of Lausanne, Chemin de la Vulliette 4, 1000, Lausanne 25, Switzerland.|Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grimm
authors.affiliation: University Center of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, University Hospital of Lausanne, Chemin de la Vulliette 4, 1000, Lausanne 25, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dédouit
authors.affiliation: University Center of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, University Hospital of Lausanne, Chemin de la Vulliette 4, 1000, Lausanne 25, Switzerland.|Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bruguier
authors.affiliation: University Center of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, University Hospital of Lausanne, Chemin de la Vulliette 4, 1000, Lausanne 25, Switzerland.|Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chevallier
authors.affiliation: University Center of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, University Hospital of Lausanne, Chemin de la Vulliette 4, 1000, Lausanne 25, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Coraline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Egger
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luiz F F
authors.initials: LFF
authors.lastname: Da Silva
authors.affiliation: University Center of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, University Hospital of Lausanne, Chemin de la Vulliette 4, 1000, Lausanne 25, Switzerland. Silke.Grabherr@chuv.ch.
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grabherr
mesh_terms: D001344:Autopsy / Q000379:methods*; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D049429:Forensic Pathology / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D061330:Multidetector Computed Tomography; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: Forensic imaging; Forensic radiology; Pediatric imaging; Post-mortem CT