Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 8, 2025
Murine Fetal Echocardiography
Published on: February 15, 2013
Minimally invasive autopsy in the evaluation of fetal malformations and stillbirths: A feasibility study
Neerja Gupta1, Nitika Langeh1, Aparna Sharma2
1Department of Pediatrics, Division of Genetics, AIIMS, New Delhi, India.
Background:
Minimally invasive autopsy (MIA) using post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging with ancillary investigations is reported as accurate as conventional autopsy. This study assesses MIA's feasibility and accuracy compared to conventional autopsy.
Method:
MIA and/or conventional autopsy were performed on malformed fetuses (14-20 weeks gestation) and stillbirths (>20 weeks gestation), with/without malformation. Concordance in diagnostic accuracy (95% confidence interval [CI]) and agreement (Kappa coefficient [k]) were assessed in malformed cases where both MIA and autopsy were conducted.
Results:
We enrolled 200 cases, including 100 malformed fetuses (<20 weeks) and 100 stillbirths (with/without malformations). Concordance of 97.3% was observed between MIA and autopsy in 156 malformed cases. The overall diagnostic accuracy of MIA was 96.04%.
Conclusion:
While conventional autopsy remains the gold standard, MIA is feasible in tertiary care settings. It can be considered a potential alternative for post-mortem assessment, particularly in settings with limited facility of conventional autopsy and parental refusal.
