Using Cari-heart Device For Improved Diagnosis Of The Cause Of Death In Post-mortem Computed Tomography Angiogram: The Added Value Of Plaque Inflammation

Introduction: Post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) is only used in few centres as the technique is not well developed. This study uses two novel technique: (1) interventional procedure under ultrasound (US) and CT guidance to perform PMCT coronary angiogram; followed by (2) coronary inflammation assessment with new medical device (CaRi-HEART) to measure perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI) Score. The CaRi-Heart Risk prognostic model incorporates FAI Score, clinical risk factors and coronary plaque metrics from CTCA to predict fatal cardiac event in living patients. It has never been used in PMCT. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of CaRi-Heart-enhanced PMCT to identify coronary-related death against autopsy ground truth.