Saegeman, V; Cohen, M C; Alberola, J; Ziyade, N; Farina, C; ESCMID, Study Group for Forensic and Postmortem Microbiology; Cornaglia, G; Fernández-Rodríguez, A (2017). How is post-mortem microbiology appraised by pathologists? Results from a practice survey conducted by ESGFOR. European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases, 36(8), pp. 1381-1385. Springer 10.1007/s10096-017-2943-6
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Post-mortem microbiology (PMM) is an important tool in forensic pathology, assisting to determine the cause and manner of death. However, there is a lack of standardisation of PMM sampling. In order to get a better insight into the methods used, the available technical options and developmental needs, ESCMID Study Group for Forensic and Postmortem Microbiology (ESGFOR) members designed a survey aimed at pathologists regarding common practices of PMM in clinical and forensic autopsies. Multiple choice questions were developed based on Cumulative Techniques and Procedures in Clinical Microbiology (Cumitech). The questionnaire was sent to pathologists mainly across Europe and Turkey using SurveyMonkey. The survey had 147 respondents. Although all pathologists were aware of the existence of PMM, 39% (19/49) of the participants were not using it. The three main indications for PMM were: (i) clinical suspicion of an infection not confirmed antemortem (83%), (ii) infectious signs at autopsy (83%) and (iii) as part of a standard protocol for foetal/perinatal or paediatric death (67%). Almost 80% of the participants using PMM stated taking 1-10 samples per case. Of the requested examinations, a general bacteriological culture (96%) and a specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for a particular infectious agent (34%) were most popular. The most frequent samples were: heart blood (66%), peripheral femoral blood (49%), spleen (64%) and lung (56%). Eighty-nine percent of the participants considered PMM a useful resource when investigating the cause of death. Although there are some common uses, this survey indicates that there is a need for improvement towards standardising sampling procedures in PMM.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
|---|---|
Division/Institute: |
04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute for Infectious Diseases |
Subjects: |
500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology 600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health |
ISSN: |
0934-9723 |
Publisher: |
Springer |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Stephen Leib |
Date Deposited: |
24 Oct 2017 11:24 |
Last Modified: |
02 May 2022 12:32 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1007/s10096-017-2943-6 |
PubMed ID: |
28236029 |
Additional Information: |
Tätigkeiten in der Forschungsgruppe zählen gem. Med. Dek. nicht für die Forschungsevaluation. Hiermit möchten wir die Möglichkeit nutzen, die Publikation unter dem Institut für Infektionskrankheiten in BORIS anzeigen zu lassen. |
BORIS DOI: |
10.7892/boris.101900 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/101900 |
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