Pediatric postmortem imaging: Current status and future perspectives in Japan

Abstract

Pediatric post-mortem imaging is used for many purposes, including determining the cause of death, assessing the true pathological condition, confirmation of medical procedures, and identifying child abuse. Post-mortem magnetic resonance (PMMR) has recently been reported to have higher diagnostic accuracy for congenital anomalies compared to post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT). However, more expensive MRI is rarely performed because its cost is hospital-borne in Japan. PMCT is a more commonly used method and may be a feasible and significant tool to detect abuse leading to death in sudden unexpected infant death cases.