Abstract
BackgroundInfancy is the most common period for childhood death, including both neonatal deaths from obstetric or medical complications and sudden unexpected infant deaths. The weighing of organs at autopsy is an established process and is recommended in current protocols. However, minimal contemporary data is available regarding reference ranges for organ weights of infants.MethodsOrgan weight data for consecutive infant autopsies over a 14 year period performed at a single tertiary centre, including >1,000 cases, were examined in order to provide up to date reference ranges across this age range, using linear regression modelling and the standard LMS method.Results1,525 infant autopsies were analysed, of which 1,190 were subsequently used in the creation of linear regression models prior to performance of the LMS method. Organ weight charts were produced for the 5th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 95th centiles for the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, pancreas, thymus gland and adrenal glands.ConclusionThis study provides the largest single centre contemporary dataset of infant autopsies allowing provision of up-to-date ‘normal’ ranges for all major organ weights across this age range.
Highlights
Infancy is the most common period for childhood death, including both neonatal deaths from obstetric or medical complications and sudden unexpected infant deaths
The aim of this study is to provide contemporary reference ranges for visceral organs from a large series of consecutive infant autopsies, all performed at a single centre by specialist paediatric pathologists following a common protocol
The findings of this study provide contemporary autopsy reference ranges for infant organs, by age, during the Gender Total cases Cases within Total cases 2 standard analysed for deviations centiles
Summary
Infancy is the most common period for childhood death, including both neonatal deaths from obstetric or medical complications and sudden unexpected infant deaths. The weighing of organs at autopsy is an established process and is recommended in current protocols. Minimal contemporary data is available regarding reference ranges for organ weights of infants. Autopsy currently remains the gold standard for determining the pathological process underlying the cause of death, based on anatomical dissection, macroscopic assessment of internal organs and sampling for histological examination and other ancillary investigations. Standard autopsy procedure includes weighing of internal organs and is recommended in current guidelines for investigation of Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy [1]. One study includes data from autopsies undertaken over a 15 year period across 35 counties in the United States [4]. Most studies have included less than 500 cases, though one publication reported a larger sample size of 553 autopsies, including fetuses, stillborn and liveborn infants [7]
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