Whole body positron emission tomography (PET) scan revealed fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) avid subcentimetric mediastinal lymph nodes and FDG avid patchy consolidatory changes in both lung upper lobes likely to be post-granulomatous changes.
On unblinded review, 14 of the infection cases had normal unventilated post-mortem lung appearances; only one case had patchy lung changes, which could have been identified prospectively.
On unblinded review, there were patchy lung changes in 17 out of 18 cases of infection, and both cases of focal lung lesions, although none of these could be confirmed as abnormal at autopsy, including histology.
In unventilated fetal lungs, infection was missed in the majority of cases, and infection was equally overcalled and missed in the paediatric population, with or without patchy signal changes in the lungs at post-mortem.
On unblinded review, there were patchy lung changes, which could have been interpreted as abnormal in only six of the cases in which infection was diagnosed at autopsy; in the other 12 cases, the lungs looked normal on PMMR.
Equally, there were patchy lung changes in five of the cases of pulmonary haemorrhage and two cases of pulmonary congestion and oedema, but the lungs looked normal in the other three and one case respectively.
This liver also showed diffuse nuclear anisocytosis, moderate parenchymal inflammation and patchy fatty change (Fig. 7E).
Patchy interstitial change with alveolar septal thickening, coagula of debris in alveoli, and associated atelectasis were evident.
