What Should be on the Differential for Pediatric-Related Autopsies?

What Should be on the Differential for Pediatric-Related Autopsies
A summary of representative images from the gross and histological examinations of the brain and other organs in the autopsy series is shown for control and non-CM cases. Meningitis (A), one of the exclusion criteria for the clinical case definition, and severe malaria anemia (B—clinical photograph of a child's hand in mother's hand at admission) served as controls in the study. Intracranial hemorrhages (C) were a cause of death in several patients who met the clinical case definition for CM but without brain sequestration. Other causes of death in patients meeting the clinical case definition of CM but without evidence of brain sequestration included pneumonia (D) and Reye's syndrome (E Whitten et al., 2011). The systemic pathology of cerebral malaria in African children. Milner DA, Whitten RO, Kamiza S, Carr R, Liomba G, Dzamalala C, Seydel KB, Molyneux ME, Taylor TE - Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology (2014). Not Altered. CC.

The differential for pediatric-related autopsies should include: 

  • Shaken baby syndrome
  • Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
  • Pediatric cardiovascular anomalies