| Summary: | Background : The clinical diagnosis of diseases and early treatment of patients are tentative pending the outcome of various laboratory investigations. Some clinical diagnosis do not tally with autopsy diagnosis; making autopsy a veritable tool for auditing clinical diagnosis of diseases.
Objectives: To determine the accuracy of clinical diagnosis of diseases using autopsy.
Design: A twelve year prospective clinico-autopsy study. (1 st Jan 1995 - 31 st Dec, 2006).
Setting: University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), and referrals from other hospitals and clinics in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Methods : The 150 patients who were previously diagnosed of various diseases and treated for variable period of time, and later died were thoroughly autopsied on request to ascertain the cause of death. The medicolegal autopsies were excluded from the study.
Results : The autopsies were performed on patients of both sexes of different ages. Ninety (60%) autopsies were males and 60(40%) females, giving a sex ratio of 1.5:1. Out of the 150 clinically diagnosed cases, autopsy accurately confirmed 127 cases (84.6% concordance rate) and varied in 23 (15.4% discordant rate)
Conclusion : Autopsy pathology is beneficial to the hospital, clinician, the surviving relatives and medical education. It is a veritable tool for auditing the accuracy of clinical diagnosis and treatment of diseases. It should be incorporated in the patient care and management delivery system in the country.
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