ProPublica this week reports on a new series of blood tests to help doctors correctly diagnose when a child suffers from a blood disorder--a development that could eventually help pathologists differentiate children who die from abuse from those who die from disease.
The news organization, along with NPR and PBS' Frontline, has previously raised questions about whether pathologists sometimes misdiagnose child abuse after a child dies. One problem is that experts believe that some signs of child abuse, such as bruising, are at times actually symptoms of undiagnosed blood disorders.
The new tests, developed by Dr. Michael Laposata, a blood-clotting expert, could help identify blood disorders in living children. Doctors need to do more work to develop tests that could be used in autopsies, the organization reports.