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by ceejayoz 5183 days ago
If a tumour is only discovered in an autopsy, it's not clinically significant... and the benefits of the x-rays may well outweigh the risk of such a (in this case, usually benign) tumour.
1 comments

Definition per http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10468/ :

"Clinically significant: A result that is large enough to affect a patient’s disease state in a manner that is noticeable to the patient and/or caregiver."

But "autopsy" means the person died but not when they died. So an autopsy of a person killed by gunshot in their 20's doesn't alters the average lifetime risk from the xrays.