Postmortem Findings in Italian Patients With COVID-19: A Descriptive Full Autopsy Study of Cases With and Without Comorbidities.

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.

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

SUBMITTER: Falasca L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7543426 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature