Cargando…

Post-Mortem Diagnosis and Autopsy Findings in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Forensic Case Series

Towards the end of 2019, a novel coronavirus was identified as the culprit for a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China. Since then, it has rapidly spread worldwide, affecting more than 43 million people, and in March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic. The purpose...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Keresztesi, Arthur-Atilla, Perde, Filip, Ghita-Nanu, Andreea, Radu, Carmen-Corina, Negrea, Mihai, Keresztesi, Gabriela
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7764537/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33321983
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics10121070
_version_ 1783628280791826432
author Keresztesi, Arthur-Atilla
Perde, Filip
Ghita-Nanu, Andreea
Radu, Carmen-Corina
Negrea, Mihai
Keresztesi, Gabriela
author_facet Keresztesi, Arthur-Atilla
Perde, Filip
Ghita-Nanu, Andreea
Radu, Carmen-Corina
Negrea, Mihai
Keresztesi, Gabriela
author_sort Keresztesi, Arthur-Atilla
collection PubMed
description Towards the end of 2019, a novel coronavirus was identified as the culprit for a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China. Since then, it has rapidly spread worldwide, affecting more than 43 million people, and in March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic. The purpose of the study is to present the findings of 15 forensic autopsies performed in Romania, on SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) positive subjects, and to present the case of one SARS-CoV-2 infected patient who experienced a violent death, as established during their autopsy. A total of 11 male and 4 female patients were autopsied, and SARS-CoV-2 infection was diagnosed post-mortem in two cases. The most frequent symptoms before death were dry cough, dyspnoea, and fever. Hypertension, ischemic cardiac disease, and a history of stroke were the most frequent associated diseases. The mean duration from the symptoms’ debut to a RT-PCR positive SARS-CoV-2 test was 3.7 days, while the mean survival time from the RT-PCR positive test was 4.2 days. A histological examination was performed in seven cases and revealed, in most of them, hyaline membranes, and mixed inflammatory cell infiltration of the interstitium, alveoli, and perivascular areas. In addition, all of the examined cases developed small vessel thrombosis. A case of violent death was also reported, regarding a 87-year-old male subject who suffered a femur fracture (domestic fall) and was diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection the following day after surgery. After transfer to a COVID-19 (coronavirus disease-19) support hospital, during an episode of behavioral disorder, the patient jumped from the first floor window. Death occurred a few days later, and the cause was established as bronchopneumonia superimposed on SARS-CoV-2 infection. In conclusion, autopsies should be conducted while providing a safe environment for professionals to perform them, because they are crucial procedures that can help gain a better understanding of the role of SARS-CoV-2 infection in thanatogenesis.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7764537
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-77645372020-12-27 Post-Mortem Diagnosis and Autopsy Findings in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Forensic Case Series Keresztesi, Arthur-Atilla Perde, Filip Ghita-Nanu, Andreea Radu, Carmen-Corina Negrea, Mihai Keresztesi, Gabriela Diagnostics (Basel) Article Towards the end of 2019, a novel coronavirus was identified as the culprit for a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China. Since then, it has rapidly spread worldwide, affecting more than 43 million people, and in March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic. The purpose of the study is to present the findings of 15 forensic autopsies performed in Romania, on SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) positive subjects, and to present the case of one SARS-CoV-2 infected patient who experienced a violent death, as established during their autopsy. A total of 11 male and 4 female patients were autopsied, and SARS-CoV-2 infection was diagnosed post-mortem in two cases. The most frequent symptoms before death were dry cough, dyspnoea, and fever. Hypertension, ischemic cardiac disease, and a history of stroke were the most frequent associated diseases. The mean duration from the symptoms’ debut to a RT-PCR positive SARS-CoV-2 test was 3.7 days, while the mean survival time from the RT-PCR positive test was 4.2 days. A histological examination was performed in seven cases and revealed, in most of them, hyaline membranes, and mixed inflammatory cell infiltration of the interstitium, alveoli, and perivascular areas. In addition, all of the examined cases developed small vessel thrombosis. A case of violent death was also reported, regarding a 87-year-old male subject who suffered a femur fracture (domestic fall) and was diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection the following day after surgery. After transfer to a COVID-19 (coronavirus disease-19) support hospital, during an episode of behavioral disorder, the patient jumped from the first floor window. Death occurred a few days later, and the cause was established as bronchopneumonia superimposed on SARS-CoV-2 infection. In conclusion, autopsies should be conducted while providing a safe environment for professionals to perform them, because they are crucial procedures that can help gain a better understanding of the role of SARS-CoV-2 infection in thanatogenesis. MDPI 2020-12-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7764537/ /pubmed/33321983 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics10121070 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Keresztesi, Arthur-Atilla
Perde, Filip
Ghita-Nanu, Andreea
Radu, Carmen-Corina
Negrea, Mihai
Keresztesi, Gabriela
Post-Mortem Diagnosis and Autopsy Findings in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Forensic Case Series
title Post-Mortem Diagnosis and Autopsy Findings in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Forensic Case Series
title_full Post-Mortem Diagnosis and Autopsy Findings in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Forensic Case Series
title_fullStr Post-Mortem Diagnosis and Autopsy Findings in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Forensic Case Series
title_full_unstemmed Post-Mortem Diagnosis and Autopsy Findings in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Forensic Case Series
title_short Post-Mortem Diagnosis and Autopsy Findings in SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Forensic Case Series
title_sort post-mortem diagnosis and autopsy findings in sars-cov-2 infection: forensic case series
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7764537/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33321983
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics10121070
work_keys_str_mv AT keresztesiarthuratilla postmortemdiagnosisandautopsyfindingsinsarscov2infectionforensiccaseseries
AT perdefilip postmortemdiagnosisandautopsyfindingsinsarscov2infectionforensiccaseseries
AT ghitananuandreea postmortemdiagnosisandautopsyfindingsinsarscov2infectionforensiccaseseries
AT raducarmencorina postmortemdiagnosisandautopsyfindingsinsarscov2infectionforensiccaseseries
AT negreamihai postmortemdiagnosisandautopsyfindingsinsarscov2infectionforensiccaseseries
AT keresztesigabriela postmortemdiagnosisandautopsyfindingsinsarscov2infectionforensiccaseseries