Concordancia entre la resonancia magnética post mortem y la autopsia clínica en la detección de malformaciones mayores en cadáveres de fetos y neonatos

Introduction: The use of diagnostic imaging in
clinical and forensic autopsies, is a practice that is
taking place in countries other than our own, especially in autopsies of particular difficulty such as
fetuses and neonates. It is important to know the
correlation between magnetic resonance imaging
postmortem and clinical autopsy to recommend its
routine use in our midst. Materials and methods:
Autopsies performed on 20 fetuses and neonates
and took total body MRI thereof, comparing imaging findings with autopsy findings. Information
obtained was tabulated and Kappa value was rated
to determine the concordance between the two
diagnostic methods. Results: We calculated the
correlation between MRI and clinical autopsy in
detecting major malformations per system, calculating a kappa index for major malformations
in the central nervous system of 0.273, for head
and neck of 0.459, to the respiratory system of
0, for cardiovascular system from 0.459, for the
gastrointestinal tract and the abdomen of 0, and urinary system of 0.643. Conclusions: Despite the
poor correlation between MRI and postmortem
clinical autopsy in detecting major malformations
is considered in this case to the clinical autopsy as
an imperfect gold standard and recommended the
use of magnetic resonance imaging study mode
can support a clinical autopsy in detecting major
malformations in difficult cases in fetuses and
neonates.