Skip to main content
OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT02502955

Virtual Autopsy in Cardiology, Cardio- and Vascular-Surgery

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.

Completed

Looking for future studies?

Notify Me

Key information

Conditions

Death Pathologic Processes Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Observational

Primary location

Department of Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)

Hamburg, 20251, Germany

About this study

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.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

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

Treatment and study plan

Comparison autopsy methods

Procedure

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

Primary outcomes

  1. Agreement of virtual autopsy and medical autopsy (inter-method agreement)

    Time frame: 1 week

    Diagnoses made by virtual autopsy will be compared to diagnoses made by classic autopsy.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Quality evaluation (satisfaction of the clinicians evaluated by a standardized questionnaire)

    Time frame: 2 weeks

    Diagnoses made by any autopsy method will be compared to ante mortem diagnoses.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

Other

Collaborators

  • Insel Gruppe AG, University Hospital Bern
  • University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

Registry information

Important dates

Study start
2015
Primary completion
2017
Study completion
2017
First posted
Jul 20, 2015
Registry last updated
Aug 8, 2017

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Related clinical trials

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.