The Modernization of the Autopsy: Application of Ultrastructural and Biochemical Methods to Human Disease

The information gained through the autopsy has played an important role in the evolution of knowledge of human disease. At the time of Semmelweiss, bedside symptoms and signs plus postmortem examinations were the only investigative tools available to study and understand the causes and progression of disease, to assess the efficacy of therapy and to monitor the quality of medical care. Feedback provided by postmortem examination was highly instrumental in the development of physical diagnosis. The autopsy was virtually the sole means of classifying disease. In the process, the autopsy spawned and furthered the development of almost every contemporary technique for the diagnosis of disease of which radiology and electrocardiography are notable examples. Once developed and refined, such clinical sciences have assumed a direction and ideology aimed at the living patient and paradoxically, the contribution of the autopsy to patient care has steadily diminished. Advances in the clinical sciences have depended more on achievements made in biologic science and less on necropsy in large part