Perinatal autopsy rates at the University Hospital of the West Indies: 2002-2008.

Objectives: High perinatal autopsy rates are necessary for institutional management protocols and national policy-making. This study reviews perinatal autopsy rates and factors affecting these rates at the University Hospital of the West Indies.

Method: All perinatal deaths (stillborn infants > or = 24 weeks gestation or 500 g; early neonatal deaths ie 0-7 days old) at the University Hospital of the West Indies, between January 2002 and December 2008, were reviewed retrospectively, using the annual perinatal audit records.

Intrathoracic and pelvic extramedullary haematopoiesis in sickle cell disease: a case report.

Intrathoracic extramedullary haematopoiesis is a rare entity encountered in patients with long standing anaemias such as thalassaemia and congenital spherocytosis. It is rare in patients with homozygous sickle cell disease; only 11 cases of intrathoracic and two cases of pelvic extramedullary haematopoiesis have been documented in the literature. We report the case of a 30-year old man with homozygous sickle cell disease with intrathoracic and pelvic extramedullary haematopoiesis, the first case to be documented from the Caribbean.