How sudden deaths are being investigated through virtual autopsy

The reason for sudden deaths among the youth in India is now being investigated through virtual postmortem. India's research organization ICMR has taken the help of Delhi AIIMS's Virtual Autopsy Center to find out the reason for sudden deaths among the youth. It is Asia's first virtual autopsy center.

Results of virtual autopsy

In the last one and a half years, a virtual autopsy of 132 people was done in AIIMS. These were all cases of sudden death. Of these, the age of 71 people was between 18 and 45 years including 58 men and 13 women. And the age of 61 people was between 45 and 65 years including 57 men and 4 women.

Out of a total of 132 deaths, 61 people died due to sudden heart failure or heart attack. Pneumonia or respiratory diseases were on the second number due to which 14 people lost their lives. The study is still going on and the detailed study of the cause of sudden death among youth will continue.

In the AIIMS mortuary, 3300 postmortems were conducted in one year. Virtual autopsies of these were also done, but there were 100 cases in which only virtual autopsies were done. Work is being done in AIIMS to increase virtual autopsy and minimize the post-mortem.

How is a virtual autopsy done?

AIIMS is the first center to conduct a virtual autopsy i.e. post-mortem done with the help of CT scan, MRI and X-ray without dissection. In case of death due to poisoning or some suspicious death, a virtual autopsy cannot be done because it is necessary to examine the liquid present inside the stomach. Apart from this, in most cases, legal reports can also be prepared easily through virtual autopsy.

In 2019, this issue was raised in Parliament whether post-mortem cannot be done without dissection. A study conducted in the Forensic Medicine Department of AIIMS found that 92 per cent wanted to avoid the post-mortem of their family members because of dissection.

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AIIMS experts went to Zurich to get information about Virtual Autopsy Center and on the same lines, Virtual Autopsy Center of AIIMS has been created. Now, based on the training of AIIMS, Virtual Autopsy Centers are also being opened in Shillong and Guwahati.

Autopsy and post-mortem reports are very important in making decisions in the court, hence AIIMS has issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) on how to prepare the virtual autopsy report. After this, if a virtual autopsy is done anywhere in the country, the report will be prepared based on this SOP which will also be valid in the court.