Pediatric autopsies( isorders. The most frequently de...),Health

Conclusions
MS/MS-based methodology provides a metabolic screening panel that will enable Medical Examiners to conduct routine screening of infant and child deaths. The benefits are profound.

In utilizing such services, Medical Examiners could advise parents to have infant siblings tested for possible metabolic disorders. Additionally, such screening could be an important component of genetic counseling and family planning for parents. Postmortem metabolic screening also provides a public health service because the number of deaths attributable to inborn errors of metabolism may begin to be assessed. High-volume postmortem screening and the data presented here will begin to demonstrate the importance of even more extensive testing procedures to determine the cause of infant and child death. These data may be developed to find profiles that require additional sophisticated testing, such as enzyme analysis, metabolic studies of skin fibroblasts, and molecular analysis of known mutations.

The importance of developing a routine post-mortem metabolic screen to investigate premature or unexplained death in infants and children cannot be overstated. While toxicology screens are routinely used to eliminate accidental or deliberate poisoning or drug overdoes, the authors urge that MS/MS-based methodology to provide a metabolic screening panel should become equally as routine among medica
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