Virtual Autopsy in Cardiology, Cardio- and Vascular-Surgery

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT02502955

Enrollment

Registered

2015-07-20

Start date

2015-05-31

Completion date

2017-08-31

Last updated

2017-08-08

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Death

Keywords

Quality Control, Cardiosurgery, Cardiology, Vascular Surgery, ICU

Brief summary

Today complex vascular and cardiological interventions are performed in severely ill patients. Autopsy is the reference standard for quality control for almost two centuries, but autopsy rates for patients dying in hospitals are decreasing rapidly. Virtual autopsy has shown to be a good alternative for classic autopsy.

Detailed description

Patients dying within 96h after a cardiological intervention of a cardio-/vascular-surgery are eligible to be included in the study. If the next of kin give oral informed consent a virtual autopsy based on a CT angiography followed by a classic medical autopsy will be performed. Ante mortem findings will be compared to findings from both autopsy methods and presented to the clinicians. Primary outcome will be the inter-method agreement. Secondary outcome will be the satisfaction of the clinicians evaluated by a standardized questionnaire.

Interventions

PROCEDUREComparison autopsy methods

Comparison of post-mortem angiography/virtual autopsy and medical autopsy

Study design

Observational model

CASE_ONLY

Time perspective

PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* 18 years or older AND * dying after a cardiological intervention or a cardio-/vascular surgery AND * oral informed consent from next of kind

Exclusion criteria

* not fulfilling all inclusion criteria

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Agreement of virtual autopsy and medical autopsy (inter-method agreement)	1 week	Diagnoses made by virtual autopsy will be compared to diagnoses made by classic autopsy.

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Quality evaluation (satisfaction of the clinicians evaluated by a standardized questionnaire)	2 weeks	Diagnoses made by any autopsy method will be compared to ante mortem diagnoses.

Countries

Germany

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026