ArticleCardiovascular pathology : the official journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology
The emerging spectrum of cardiopulmonary pathology of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Report of 3 autopsies from Houston, Texas, and review of autopsy findings from other United States cities.
Article in Cardiovascular pathology : the official journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 232 papers, 15 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
232 citing papers in PubMed, 15 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 397 citations in OpenAlex.
- Findings and inferences from full autopsies, minimally invasive autopsies and biopsy studies in patients who died as a result of COVID19 - A systematic review.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2022Pooled it
- COVID-19-Associated cardiac pathology at the postmortem evaluation: a collaborative systematic review.Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases · 2022Pooled it
- 2022 ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathway on Cardiovascular Sequelae of COVID-19 in Adults: Myocarditis and Other Myocardial Involvement, Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection, and Return to Play: A Report of the American College of Cardiology Solution Set Oversight Committee.Journal of the American College of Cardiology · 2022Guideline
- Postmortem findings in COVID-19 fatalities: A systematic review of current evidence.Legal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) · 2022Pooled it
- Risk factors for pulmonary embolism in patients with COVID-19: a systemic review and meta-analysis.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Histopathological findings and clinicopathologic correlation in COVID-19: a systematic review.Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc · 2021Pooled it
- Invasive mould disease in fatal COVID-19: a systematic review of autopsies.The Lancet. Microbe · 2021Pooled it
- Postmortem Findings Associated With SARS-CoV-2: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.The American journal of surgical pathology · 2021Pooled it
- Autopsy Tool in Unknown Diseases: The Experience with Coronaviruses (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2).Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2021Pooled it
- Systematic Review of Microthrombi in COVID-19 Autopsies.Acta haematologica · 2021Pooled it
- Heterogeneity in Regional Damage Detected by Neuroimaging and Neuropathological Studies in Older Adults With COVID-19: A Cognitive-Neuroscience Systematic Review to Inform the Long-Term Impact of the Virus on Neurocognitive Trajectories.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- High prevalence of hepatic steatosis and vascular thrombosis in COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis of autopsy data.World journal of gastroenterology · 2020Pooled it
- Cardiovascular Manifestations and Mechanisms in Patients with COVID-19.Trends in endocrinology and metabolism: TEM · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The efficacy of corticosteroids therapy in patients with moderate to severe SARS-CoV-2 infection: a multicenter, randomized, open-label trial.Respiratory research · 2021Trial
- Blood-Brain Barrier Changes and Related Microvascular Outcomes in Long-COVID: A Comprehensive Review.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Detection of bovine coronavirus in myocardial tissue of a naturally infected calf.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- Chronic viral infections impaired the growth process of splenic B cells by upregulating Bbc3 and Atf3 in LCMV-CL13 infected mouse model.Virulence · 2025Article
- Cardio-Pulmonary Features of Long COVID: From Molecular and Histopathological Characteristics to Clinical Implications.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
172 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 7 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This paper collates the pathological findings from initial published autopsy reports on 23 patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from 5 centers in the United States of America, including 3 cases from Houston, Texas. Findings confirm that COVID-19 is a systemic disease with major involvement of the lungs and heart. Acute COVID-19 pneumonia has features of a distinctive acute interstitial pneumonia with a diffuse alveolar damage component, coupled with microvascular involvement with intra- and extravascular fibrin deposition and intravascular trapping of neutrophils, and, frequently, with formation of microthombi in arterioles. Major pulmonary thromboemboli with pulmonary infarcts and/or hemorrhage occurred in 5 of the 23 patients. Two of the Houston cases had interstitial pneumonia with diffuse alveolar damage pattern. One of the Houston cases had multiple bilateral segmental pulmonary thromboemboli with infarcts and hemorrhages coupled with, in nonhemorrhagic areas, a distinctive interstitial lymphocytic pneumonitis with intra-alveolar fibrin deposits and no hyaline membranes, possibly representing a transition form to acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia. Multifocal acute injury of cardiac myocytes was frequently observed. Lymphocytic myocarditis was reported in 1 case. In addition to major pulmonary pathology, the 3 Houston cases had evidence of lymphocytic pericarditis, multifocal acute injury of cardiomyocytes without inflammatory cellular infiltrates, depletion of splenic white pulp, focal hepatocellular degeneration and rare glomerular capillary thrombosis. Each had evidence of chronic cardiac disease: hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy (420 g heart), dilated cardiomyopathy (1070 g heart), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (670 g heart). All 3 subjects were obese (BMIs of 33.8, 51.65, and 35.2 Kg/m
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