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Postmortem Findings in Italian Patients With COVID-19: A Descriptive Full Autopsy Study of Cases With and Without Comorbidities.
- Source :
-
The Journal of infectious diseases [J Infect Dis] 2020 Nov 09; Vol. 222 (11), pp. 1807-1815. - Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Background: Descriptions of the pathological features of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel zoonotic pathogen severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) emanate from tissue biopsies, case reports, and small postmortem studies restricted to the lung and specific organs. Whole-body autopsy studies of COVID-19 patients have been sparse.<br />Methods: To further define the pathology caused by SARS-CoV-2 across all body organs, we performed autopsies on 22 patients with COVID-19 (18 with comorbidities and 4 without comorbidities) who died at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases Lazzaro Spallanzani-IRCCS Hospital, Rome, Italy. Tissues from the lung, heart, liver, kidney, spleen, and bone marrow (but not the brain) were examined. Only lung tissues were subject to transmission electron microscopy.<br />Results: COVID-19 caused multisystem pathology. Pulmonary and cardiovascular involvement were dominant pathological features. Extrapulmonary manifestations included hepatic, kidney, splenic, and bone marrow involvement, and microvascular injury and thrombosis were also detected. These findings were similar in patients with or without preexisting medical comorbidities.<br />Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 infection causes multisystem disease and significant pathology in most organs in patients with and without comorbidities.<br /> (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)
- Subjects :
- Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Autopsy methods
Bone Marrow pathology
COVID-19 epidemiology
COVID-19 virology
Comorbidity
Female
Humans
Italy epidemiology
Kidney pathology
Liver pathology
Lung pathology
Male
Middle Aged
Spleen pathology
Thrombosis pathology
Vascular Diseases pathology
Vascular Diseases virology
COVID-19 pathology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1537-6613
- Volume :
- 222
- Issue :
- 11
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- The Journal of infectious diseases
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 32914853
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiaa578