Interpretation of post-mortem microbiology cultures: retrospective analysis of children under five years of age from 2011-2015 in Ontario

Abstract

A retrospective analysis of sudden unexpected child deaths under five years of age was performed at the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, Ontario, Canada in an attempt to correlate post-mortem microbiological test results to post-mortem macroscopic and microscopic findings. The study focused on a five year period between 2011 and 2015 for a total of 284 cases, of which 180 were of undetermined cause. A spreadsheet was compiled including bacterial and viral findings, autopsy findings, and final diagnosis. All data was extracted from a central computerized pathology database and manually entered into a separate spreadsheet. Microbiological and cause of death data was assigned a presence or absence score in the form of a one or zero. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated for each potential combination using a correlation matrix. Correlation coefficients above 7.0 and below -7.0 were considered significant. The significance of microbiological specimens in undetermined causes of death was investigated in this study.