Eh. Bernicker et al., UNANTICIPATED DIAGNOSES FOUND AT AUTOPSY IN AN URBAN PUBLIC TEACHING HOSPITAL, The American journal of the medical sciences, 311(5), 1996, pp. 215-220
The authors set out to evaluate the use of the autopsy in an urban pub
lic teaching hospital setting during the AIDS era. Demographic and len
gth of hospital stay data were obtained from weekly mortality review r
eports on all patients dying on the medicine service between 1/1/92 an
d 12/31/93. Clinical and autopsy diagnoses were compared for those pat
ients who had autopsies. The autopsy rate was 16% (152/974). Significa
nt, unsuspected diagnoses were found in 35% (53/152) of the cases, wit
h infections, pulmonary emboli, and myocardial infarctions being most
common. Human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients had a greater p
ercentage of unsuspected findings (55%, 23/42), and many of these also
were from an infectious etiology. The authors conclude that valuable,
unsuspected information frequently can be obtained from autopsies in
this clinical setting.