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Ancillary Studies and Dissection Techniques in the Pediatric Autopsy

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Abstract

This chapter discusses various techniques such as photography, radiology, postmortem chemistry, and genetic testing that are helpful in documenting disease and elucidating the cause and manner of death. As with any premortem laboratory test, correlation with clinical history, development of reference ranges, and factors interfering with the test that generate false positives and negatives are the responsibility of the pathologist performing the autopsy and the laboratory performing the test. Several anatomical dissections that serve as an adjunct to the standard autopsy critical in elucidating the cause of death are also illustrated.

The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as representing the views of the Uniformed Services University or the Department of Defense.

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Conran, R.M., Stocker, J.T. (2014). Ancillary Studies and Dissection Techniques in the Pediatric Autopsy. In: Collins, K., Byard, R. (eds) Forensic Pathology of Infancy and Childhood. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-403-2_39

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