ArticleCritical care (London, England)2020
Unspecific post-mortem findings despite multiorgan viral spread in COVID-19 patients.
Article in Critical care (London, England), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07380152 (Corticosteroid Treatment for Post-COVID-19 Persistent Interstitial Lung Disease), which is not on this map. Cited by 180 papers, 18 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Corticosteroid Treatment for Post-COVID-19 Persistent Interstitial Lung Disease
Who cites it
180 citing papers in PubMed, 18 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 302 citations in OpenAlex.
- SARS-Cov-2 infection and neuropathological findings: a report of 18 cases and review of the literature.Acta neuropathologica communications · 2023Pooled it
- 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
- An ancient examination in the face of a modern pandemic: systematic review of major clinicopathological autopsy findings.Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 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
- SARS-CoV-2 and the brain: A review of the current knowledge on neuropathology in COVID-19.Brain pathology (Zurich, Switzerland) · 2021Pooled it
- Invasive mould disease in fatal COVID-19: a systematic review of autopsies.The Lancet. Microbe · 2021Pooled it
- Autopsy findings in COVID-19-related deaths: a literature review.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 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
- Pathological findings in organs and tissues of patients with COVID-19: A systematic review.PloS one · 2021Pooled 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
- A review of the main histopathological findings in coronavirus disease 2019.Human pathology · 2020Pooled it
- On the whereabouts of SARS-CoV-2 in the human body: A systematic review.PLoS pathogens · 2020Pooled it
- COVID-19 and the Heart: A Systematic Review of Cardiac Autopsies.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Sensitive tracking of circulating viral RNA through all stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2021Trial
- Neurological impairment in long COVID: implications for neurodegenerative disease.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
120 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPost-mortem studies can provide important information for understanding new diseases and small autopsy case series have already reported different findings in COVID-19 patients.
methodsWe evaluated whether some specific post-mortem features are observed in these patients and if these changes are related to the presence of the virus in different organs. Complete macroscopic and microscopic autopsies were performed on different organs in 17 COVID-19 non-survivors. Presence of SARS-CoV-2 was evaluated with immunohistochemistry (IHC) in lung samples and with real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test in the lung and other organs.
resultsPulmonary findings revealed early-stage diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) in 15 out of 17 patients and microthrombi in small lung arteries in 11 patients. Late-stage DAD, atypical pneumocytes, and/or acute pneumonia were also observed. Four lung infarcts, two acute myocardial infarctions, and one ischemic enteritis were observed. There was no evidence of myocarditis, hepatitis, or encephalitis. Kidney evaluation revealed the presence of hemosiderin in tubules or pigmented casts in most patients. Spongiosis and vascular congestion were the most frequently encountered brain lesions. No specific SARS-CoV-2 lesions were observed in any organ. IHC revealed positive cells with a heterogeneous distribution in the lungs of 11 of the 17 (65%) patients; RT-PCR yielded a wide distribution of SARS-CoV-2 in different tissues, with 8 patients showing viral presence in all tested organs (i.e., lung, heart, spleen, liver, colon, kidney, and brain).
conclusionsIn conclusion, autopsies revealed a great heterogeneity of COVID-19-associated organ injury and the remarkable absence of any specific viral lesions, even when RT-PCR identified the presence of the virus in many organs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.