Postmortem cardiac imaging in fetuses and children

Abstract

Fetal and pediatric cardiac autopsies have a crucial role in the counseling of parents with regard to both the cause of death of their child and the implications of such findings for future pregnancies, as well as for quality assurance of antenatal screening programs and antemortem diagnostic procedures. Postmortem imaging allows an opportunity to investigate the heart in situ prior to dissection, and both postmortem CT and postmortem MRI have shown excellent accuracy in detecting the majority of clinically significant cardiac lesions in the perinatal and pediatric population. As less-invasive autopsy becomes increasingly popular, clinical guidelines for maximal diagnostic yield in specific circumstances can be developed.