post-mortem ULTRASOUND (pmus)

The vast majority of the literature has focussed on post-mortem ultrasound for perinatal deaths. In these situations, there is excellent soft tissue contrast and the absense of air in the lungs means it is possible to comment on pulmonary lobulation and also get views of the heart. Again, an appreciation of normal versus abnormal appearances is vital. The three articles below provide some advice on technique and common pathologies.

There are not many articles on post-mortem ultrasound diagnostic accuracy, however a recently published systematic review looked at those reported in the literature to give a pooled estimate for accuracy of different body parts and also overall diagnosis. This is provided below with links to other references.

Both PMUS and PMMR provide good soft tissue contrast and can be used for looking at internal organs. PMUS is much cheaper and more accessible (trained staff depending) than PMMR, but how do they compare? The following articles have looked at using 1.5T and 3T PMMR versus PMUS and may provide some insight into the differences of the techniques and accuracy rates for body parts.

If we can use PMUS or PMMR, but that we get more non-diagnostic PMUS images than PMMR, can we predict which cases are not going to be helpful to perform PMUS for?

As for imaging live children, we can use US to help guide biopsies of organs. This can be used to aid the post-mortem investigation. Below we provide articles that detail whether or not this histological investigation adds anything to the final autopsy result and also articles detailing how PMUS guided interventions can be conducted.