SARS-CoV-2-related deaths in routine forensic autopsy practice: histopathological patterns

“Severe acute respiratory syndrome” (SARS) due to coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection is a well-known cause of death. Sometimes, demise can occur unexpectedly in apparently previous healthy individual after a brief period of trivial flu-like symptoms. In these doubtful cases, the forensic pathologist...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of legal medicine 2020-11, Vol.134 (6), p.2205-2208
Main Authors: Tombolini, Antonio, Scendoni, Roberto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adrenal Cortex - pathology
Aged
Alveolar Epithelial Cells - pathology
Autopsies
Autopsy
Betacoronavirus - pathogenicity
Case Report
Cell Aggregation
Coronavirus Infections - pathology
COVID-19
Eosinophils - pathology
Fatalities
Female
Forensic Medicine
Forensic pathology
Histopathology
Humans
Hyperplasia
Intranuclear Inclusion Bodies - pathology
Lung - pathology
Medical Law
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Megakaryocytes - pathology
Microscopy
Middle Aged
Multimorbidity
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral - pathology
Pulmonary Embolism - pathology
Respiratory diseases
SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Splenomegaly - pathology
Viral diseases
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Summary:“Severe acute respiratory syndrome” (SARS) due to coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection is a well-known cause of death. Sometimes, demise can occur unexpectedly in apparently previous healthy individual after a brief period of trivial flu-like symptoms. In these doubtful cases, the forensic pathologist could be requested to define the cause of death occurred outside the hospital. In this report, the authors describe two autopsied cases of SARS-CoV-2-related deaths which occurred suddenly at home and were not preceded by hospitalization, highlighting associated histopathologic patterns and correlating them to pathophysiology of viral infection.
ISSN:0937-9827
1437-1596
1437-1596
DOI:10.1007/s00414-020-02354-5