Postmortem remains the diagnostic gold standard. A recent retrospective study compared clinical antemortem and pathologic postmortem diagnoses in 1,000 cats and 1,000 dogs. The authors suggest that postmortem evaluation provides valuable information in nearly 50 percent of cases.
Source: Clinician’s Brief, October 2017.
In this study, total agreement between antemortem and postmortem diagnoses was found in 38.3% of cats and 36.2% of dogs. It has previously been reported that postmortem examination is often ordered when there is clinical uncertainty, thus favoring a trend toward disagreement between antemortem and postmortem diagnoses. In another study, only 75% of cases had a correct initial main diagnosis—even when confidence in a clinical diagnosis was high.
INSIGHTS: Key pearls to put into practice:
- Postmortem examination remains an important tool that should be promoted in as many cases as possible.
- New diagnostic techniques and equipment are tremendous assets, but do not obviate postmortem examination.
- Information from postmortem evaluation must be compared with antemortem findings to optimize case information.
- Before postmortem examination, communication and collaboration among clinicians and pathologists is essential.