A Comparative Clinical Diagnostic Examination of Deceased Poisoned Patients in Baharloo Hospital Through Autopsy and Toxicology at Tehran’s Medico-Legal Organization During 2014-2015

Abstract

Acute poisoning is nowadays a common medical emergency. The important point about admitting patients with acute poisoning is its timely and early diagnosis. However, the rate of consistency between clinical diagnosis and autopsy of patients with acute lethal poisoning has not been investigated broadly. The goal of this study was to compare the clinical symptoms of poisoned deceased patients through autopsy and toxicology at Tehran’s Medico-Legal Organization. A cross-sectional study was conducted on all the admitted poisoning cases at Baharloo Hospital in 2014 to 2015 who passed away and were referred to Kahrizak Autopsy Hall. Through investigating the medical records of the Hospital and Autopsy Hall, the researcher examined and compared the existent files. The collected data were entered into SPSS 16. Data were analyzed using Cohen’s kappa coefficient. In all, 98 people who had died from acute poisoning were investigated. The most common causes of poisoning were drugs (49%), followed by pesticides (39%). The least common cause of poisoning was alcohol (1%). The most common poisonous drugs were opioids. The most common causes of death based on hospital records and autopsy results were rice tablets and high-dose opioid poisoning. Using Cohen’s kappa coefficient, the rate of agreement between the causes of death in hospital records and autopsy results was estimated at 0.744. Bearing in mind the consistency of clinical diagnosis with postmortem autopsy results, we may begin life-saving management of patients of acute poisoning in the shortest possible time.

Keywords

• Poisoning
• Aluminum phosphide
• Clinical diagnosis
• Autopsy