Necropsy study of patients submitted to a heart transplantation

• Grant number: 10/12278-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2010
• End date: October 31, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal Investigator: Edimar Alcides Bocchi
• Grantee: Thiago Ninck Valette
• Host Institution: Instituto do Coração Professor Euryclides de Jesus Zerbini (INCOR). Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP (HCFMUSP). Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The post mortem examination has contributed to the evolution of knowledge in medicine. However, the frequency with which medical centers perform autopsies has been reduced in recent decades, in different series. The reasons given for this phenomenon are varied and include cultural and negative of families, lack of financial sources of the procedure, an aging population and less interest in autopsy findings in the elderly, reduced scientific interest by doctors in the autopsy findings and hesitation against the possibility detection of medical errors. Despite this historical trend, diagnostic discrepancies between pre and post-mortem continue to be reported, ranging from 4.1 to 49.8% of cases referred for autopsy. Not rated series in recent diagnoses with clinical data obtained pre-mortem and autopsy diagnoses of patients undergoing heart transplantation. This study aims to analyze the patients who died at the Hospital of the Medical School of USP, which have undergone heart transplantation. The goals are to study the causes of death in these, the presence of complications post-transplant, effects of immunosuppressive drugs and to compare diagnostic pre and post-mortem.