BMJ 2002;325:549 ( 7 September )

Letters

Postmortem radiology is useful but no substitute for necropsy

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---Recent high profile events surrounding postmortem examination procedures have required that additional means of examination be sought.1 A necropsy describes a variety of methods used to ascertain the cause of death or pathological conditions within a deceased person, and ranges from a needle biopsy to radiology. Common usage of the term, however, refers to the thorough macroscopic and microscopic examinations of the organ systems, which are evidence based and derived from the centuries of research into pathological processes and their correlation with premorbid conditions. Information from the necropsy aids examiners to complete a medical certificate of cause of death to the best of their knowledge and belief, as instructed by law.2

Postmortem radiology is a useful tool to confirm the presence of diseases, but it should not be used to replace the gold standard examination, a necropsy.3 Bisset et al in their paper often do not confirm their . . . [Full text of this article]
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