Abstract

ALMEIDA, Marcos Célio de; COUTO, Luiz Antonio Andrade Machado; SILVA, Luiz Henrique Fernandes da  and  CARVALHAL, Silvio dos Santos. Correlation between anatomo-clinical diagnosis and retrospective assessment of clinical diagnosis in post mortms. Rev. Saúde Pública [online]. 1989, vol.23, n.4, pp. 285-291. ISSN 0034-8910.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0034-89101989000400003.

The post mortem findings in 200 autopsies were compared with the clinical diagnoses. Twenty diseases were analysed with respect to clinico-pathological correlation. In relation to the respective totals the diseases most frequently missed clinically were (false negative) pyelonephrites (100%), pulmonary embolus (87.50%) and bronchopneumonia (58.16%). In relation to the respective totals the clinical diagnoses less frequently confirmed (false positive) were tuberculosis (69.56%), paracoccidioidomycosis (57.14%), sepsis (53.13%) and Chagas'disease (44.44%). There was clinico-pathological agreement in 97 autopsies (48.50%). In 19 cases (9.50%) if the diagnostic error had been detected during life this probably would have changes the prognosis. The findings are discussed in the light of previous studies. The importance of routine post-mortem examination and clinico-pathological correlation is stressed.

Keywords : Diagnosis; Autopsy; Diagnostic error; Evaluation.