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The pathological autopsy of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019) in China: a review
Baoyong Zhou1, Wei Zhao2, Ruixi Feng2
1Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, People's Republic of China.
Insights
Understanding the cause of death in COVID-19 cases is crucial. Pathological autopsies in China offer insights into COVID-19 disease, correlating clinical symptoms with pathological findings to aid prevention and treatment strategies.
Area of Science:
- Pathology
- Infectious Diseases
- Public Health
Background:
- The global spread of COVID-19 necessitates a deeper understanding of its pathobiology.
- Accurate determination of COVID-19 as a cause of death can be challenging.
- Pathological autopsies are essential for clarifying disease mechanisms and mortality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the status of pathological autopsies for COVID-19 deaths in China.
- To highlight the importance of autopsy findings for understanding COVID-19 pathogenesis.
- To identify challenges associated with performing autopsies for COVID-19 cases.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective review of research on pathological autopsies for COVID-19 deaths in China.
- Analysis of existing literature to summarize findings and challenges.
Main Results:
- Autopsy studies in China provide crucial data correlating clinical symptoms with pathological features of COVID-19.
- These studies are vital for determining the cause of death and informing public health strategies.
- Several challenges in conducting COVID-19 autopsies have been identified.
Conclusions:
- Pathological autopsy research in China enhances the understanding of COVID-19 disease.
- Findings from these autopsies can guide clinical practice, prevention, and control measures.
- Further pathological studies are needed to fully elucidate COVID-19's impact.
Abstract:
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019) that emerged in Wuhan, China, has rapidly spread to many countries across all six WHO regions. However, its pathobiology remains incompletely understood and many efforts are underway to study it worldwide. To clarify its pathogenesis to some extent, it will inevitably require lots of COVID-2019-associated pathological autopsies. Pathologists from all over the world have raised concerns with pathological autopsy relating to COVID-2019. The issue of whether a person died from COVID-2019 infection or not is always an ambiguous problem in some cases, and ongoing epidemiology from China may shed light on it. This review retrospectively summarizes the research status of pathological autopsy for COVID-2019 deaths in China, which will be important for the cause of death, prevention, control and clinical strategies of COVID-2019. Moreover, it points out several challenges at autopsy. We believe pathological studies from China enable to correlate clinical symptoms and pathological features of COVID-2019 for doctors and provide an insight into COVID-2019 disease.
