Abstract
Background: We sought to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of post-mortem cardiac magnetic resonance (PMCMR) of explanted hearts to detect the cardiac causes of sudden death. Methods: PMCMR was performed in formalin-fixed explanted hearts of 115 cases of sudden death. Histological sampling of myocardium was performed using two different approaches: (1) guideline-based sampling; (2) guideline-based plus PMCMR-driven sampling. Results: Forensic diagnosis of cardiac cause of death was ascertained in 72 (63%) patients. When the guideline-driven histological sampling was used, the PMCMR interpretation matched with final forensic diagnosis in 93 out of 115 cases (81%) with sensitivity of 88% (79–95%), specificity of 65% (47–80%), PPV of 84% (78–90%), NPV of 73% (58–84%), accuracy of 81% (72–88%), and AUC of 0.77 (0.68–0.84). When a PMCMR-driven approach was added to the guideline-based one, the matching increased to 102 (89%) cases with a PMCMR sensitivity of 89% (80–94%), a specificity of 86% (67–96%), PPV of 95% (89–98%), NPV of 73% (59–83%), accuracy of 89% (81–93%), and AUC of 0.88 (0.80–0.93). Conclusions: PMCMR has high accuracy to identify the cardiac cause of sudden death and may be considered a valid auxilium for forensic diagnosis. PMCMR could improve histological diagnosis in conditions with focal myocardial involvement or demonstrating signs of myocardial ischemia.
Subject
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Cited by
4 articles.
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