ReviewCardiovascular pathology : the official journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology
Myocarditis is rare in COVID-19 autopsies: cardiovascular findings across 277 postmortem examinations.
Review 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 184 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
184 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 316 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Implications of SARS-CoV-2-Associated Myocarditis in the Medical Evaluation of Athletes.Sports health · 2021Pooled it
- Clinico-histopathologic and single-nuclei RNA-sequencing insights into cardiac injury and microthrombi in critical COVID-19.JCI insight · 2022Trial
- SARS-CoV-2 Persistence and Cardiovascular Sequelae in the Post-COVID Era: A Public Health Microbiology Perspective on Sudden Cardiac Death and Pulmonary Thromboembolism.Microorganisms · 2026Review
- LDLR-OPN Interaction Drives COVID-19 Myocarditis Through Monocyte Recruitment.JACC. Basic to translational science · 2026Article
- Prolonged ventricular fibrillation treated with nifekalant in fulminant myocarditis following late-onset coronavirus disease 2019.BMJ case reports · 2026Article
- Evidence for Autoimmunity in the Pathogenesis of COVID-19-Induced Myocarditis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- "Bridging the clinical, molecular and genetic perspectives on myocarditis in post-COVID-19 era".International journal of cardiology. Cardiovascular risk and prevention · 2026Review
- Myocardial and Vascular Involvement in COVID-19 and Post-Vaccination States: Understanding Injury Pathways and Clinical Implications.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Innate immune activation and mitochondrial ROS induce acute and persistent cardiac conduction system dysfunction after COVID-19.JCI insight · 2025Article
- Decoding long COVID-associated cardiovascular dysfunction: Mechanisms, models, and new approach methodologies.Journal of molecular and cellular cardiology · 2025Review
- Evolution in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Myocarditis in Recent Years: State of the Art.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- The association between troponin positivity and adverse clinical outcomes, echocardiographic findings, and mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2025Article
- Cardio-Pulmonary Features of Long COVID: From Molecular and Histopathological Characteristics to Clinical Implications.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Cardiovascular Manifestations of Patients with Long COVID.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- COVID-19 and Myocarditis: Trends, Clinical Characteristics, and Future Directions.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Article
- Review
- Coronavirus disease 2019-related myocardial injury is associated with immune dysregulation in symptomatic patients with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities.Cardiovascular research · 2024Observational
124 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic, the result of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2, is a major cause of worldwide mortality with a significant cardiovascular component. While a number of different cardiovascular histopathologies have been reported at postmortem examination, their incidence is unknown, due to limited numbers of cases in any given study. A literature review was performed identifying 277 autopsied hearts across 22 separate publications of COVID-19 positive patients. The median age of the autopsy cohort was 75 and 97.6% had one or more comorbidities. Initial review of the data indicate that myocarditis was present in 20 hearts (7.2%); however, closer examination of additional reported information revealed that most cases were likely not functionally significant and the true prevalence of myocarditis is likely much lower (<2%). At least one acute, potentially COVID-19-related cardiovascular histopathologic finding, such as macro or microvascular thrombi, inflammation, or intraluminal megakaryocytes, was reported in 47.8% of cases. Significant differences in reporting of histopathologic findings occurred between studies indicating strong biases in observations and the need for more consistency in reporting. In conclusion, across 277 cases, COVID-19-related cardiac histopathological findings, are common, while myocarditis is rare.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.