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Updated: Sep 28, 2025
Lung CT Segmentation to Identify Consolidations and Ground Glass Areas for Quantitative Assesment of SARS-CoV Pneumonia
Published on: December 19, 2020
Inflammatory Profiles of Tracheal Biopsies From SARS-CoV-2 Patients
Giacomo Fiacchini1, Agnese Proietti2, Anello Marcello Poma3
1Otolaryngology, Audiology and Phoniatric Operative Unit, Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Purpose:
An increasing number of laryngotracheal complications in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients has been reported in the last few months. Many etiopathogenetic hypotheses were proposed but no clear explanation of these complications was identified. In this paper we evaluated the possibility that the tracheal mucosa could be a high viral replication site that could weaken the epithelium itself.
Methods:
Subjects for the COVID-19 group and the control group were selected retrospectively according to specific criteria. Patients' basic and clinical data were recorded and analyzed. Tracheal samples of both groups were collected during surgical tracheostomies and then analyzed from a histological and genetic-transcriptional point of view.
Results:
Four COVID-19 patients were enrolled in this study and compared with four non-COVID-19 patients. No laryngotracheal complications were identified in both groups. The SARS-CoV-2 was detected in one out of four COVID-19 samples. A subepithelial inflammatory lymphomonocyte infiltrate was observed in all patients but two cases of the COVID-19 group showed vasculitis of small subepithelial vessels associated with foci of coagulative necrosis. Two gene sets (HALLMARK_INFLAMMATORY_RESPONSE and HALLMARK_ESTROGEN_RESPONSE_LATE) were significantly deregulated in COVID-19 patients compared to the control group.
Conclusion:
The altered inflammatory response of the COVID-19 patients could be another possible explanation of the increasing number of laryngotracheal complications.
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