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Bonelli M, Rosato E, Locatelli M, Tartaglia A, Falco P, Petrarca C, Potenza F, Damiani V, Mandatori D, De Laurenzi V, Stuppia L, D'Ovidio C. Long persistence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 swab positivity in a drowned corpse: a case report. J Med Case Rep 2022; 16:72. [PMID: 35139890 PMCID: PMC8826670 DOI: 10.1186/s13256-022-03297-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2021] [Accepted: 01/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Since the beginning of the worldwide spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 to date, important knowledge has been obtained about the virus behavior in living subjects and on inanimate surfaces; however, there is still a lack of data on virus persistency on dead bodies and the risk of contagion from cadavers. Case presentation The present case shows the persistency of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 viral genome in nasopharyngeal swabs performed on a drowned Caucasian man, aged 41 years old, who was completely asymptomatic when he was alive, up to 41 days after death. Specific real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (TaqMan 2019-nCoV Assay Kit v2; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Italy and Realquality RQ-SARS-CoV-2, AB Analytical) was used to evaluate the swabs. Conclusions This data reflect the importance of postmortem swabs in all autopsy cases, and not only in potential severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-related death, and also highlight the necessity to evaluate virus positivity a long time after the moment of death, even if a low initial viral load was assessed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Bonelli
- Section of Legal Medicine, Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, 66100, Chieti, Italy
| | - Enrica Rosato
- Section of Legal Medicine, Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, 66100, Chieti, Italy
| | - Marcello Locatelli
- Department of Pharmacy, University of Chieti-Pescara "G. d'Annunzio", Via dei Vestini 31, 66100, Chieti, Italy
| | - Angela Tartaglia
- Department of Pharmacy, University of Chieti-Pescara "G. d'Annunzio", Via dei Vestini 31, 66100, Chieti, Italy
| | - Pietro Falco
- Division of Legal Medicine, SS. Annunziata Hospital, Chieti, Italy
| | - Claudia Petrarca
- Allergy and Immunotoxicology and Occupational Biorepository, Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, 66100, Chieti, Italy
| | - Francesca Potenza
- Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, 66100, Chieti, Italy
| | - Verena Damiani
- Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, 66100, Chieti, Italy
| | - Domitilla Mandatori
- Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, 66100, Chieti, Italy
| | - Vincenzo De Laurenzi
- Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, 66100, Chieti, Italy
| | - Liborio Stuppia
- Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, 66100, Chieti, Italy
| | - Cristian D'Ovidio
- Section of Legal Medicine, Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, 66100, Chieti, Italy.
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Kooranifar S, Sadeghipour A, Riahi T, Goodarzi A, Tabrizi S, Davoody N. Histopathologic survey on lung necropsy specimens of 15 patients who died from COVID-19: A large study from Iran with a high rate of anthracosis. Med J Islam Repub Iran 2021; 35:63. [PMID: 34277500 PMCID: PMC8278026 DOI: 10.47176/mjiri.35.63] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: In the pandemic era of Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), one of the most important issues is the nature of real pathological events that occur during disease course in different parts of the body. There are several ways to know more about COVID-related histopathological events,such as tissue sampling which means biopsy from the tissues of either livepeople or necropsy/autopsy of people who died from COVID-19. Methods: We conducted an original study for assessing histopathological findings of lung necropsy samples collected from 15 Iranian patients.The continuous variables were presented as mean and standard deviation, and for the qualitative data on histopathological findings, the percentage or qualitative scores (0 to +3) were used. Results: We found similar presentations of COVID-related histopathologic events regarding percentage and severity in pulmonary tissue, includinglymphocytic infiltrations, inflammatory infiltrations of septal and perivascular areas, desquamated type2 pneumocytes, hyaline membrane changes, fibrin material depositions, abnormal changes of alveolar capillaries, presence of megakaryocytes, PMN infiltrations, septal necrosis, microabscess formation and bacterial colony formation. Also, we found few interesting features which were not completely compatible with previous similar studies or newly reported by ours asa high percentage of anthracosis (86%: 13 patients) that was not clearly reported in other previous studies, also a lower percentage of microthrombotic vascular lung injuries (20%: 3 patients), and a higher percentage of viral cytopathic effects (27%: 4 patients). Conclusion: This article suggests a greater need for evaluatingthe autopsy samples of COVID-19 patients to provide better management strategies and propose the question of whether anthracosismay be a mortality risk factor in COVID-19 patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siavash Kooranifar
- Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Rasool Akram Medical Complex, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Alireza Sadeghipour
- Department of Pathology and Oncopathology Research Center, Rasool Akram Medical Complex, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Taghi Riahi
- Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Rasool Akram Medical Complex, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Azadeh Goodarzi
- Department of Dermatology, Rasool Akram Medical Complex, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Sanaz Tabrizi
- Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Rasool Akram Medical Complex, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Navid Davoody
- Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Rasool Akram Medical Complex, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
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Giorgetti A, Orazietti V, Busardò FP, Pirani F, Giorgetti R. Died with or Died of? Development and Testing of a SARS CoV-2 Significance Score to Assess the Role of COVID-19 in the Deaths of Affected Patients. Diagnostics (Basel) 2021; 11:190. [PMID: 33525705 PMCID: PMC7912253 DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics11020190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2020] [Revised: 01/18/2021] [Accepted: 01/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Since December 2019, a new form of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has spread from China to the whole word, raising concerns regarding Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) endangering public health and life. Over 1.5 million deaths related with COVID-19 have been recorded worldwide, with wide variations among countries affected by the pandemic and continuously growing numbers. The aim of this paper was to provide an overview of the literature cases of deaths involving COVID-19 and to evaluate the application of the COVID-19 Significance Score (CSS) in the classification of SARS CoV-2-related fatalities, comparing it with the Hamburg rating scale. The results obtained allowed us to highlight that CSS used after a complete accurate post-mortem examination, coupled to the retrieval of in vivo data, post-mortem radiology, histology and toxicology, as well as to additional required analyses (e.g., electronic microscopy) is a useful and concise tool in the assessment of the cause of death and the role played by this virus. A shared use of this scale might hopefully lower the inhomogeneities in forensic evaluation of SARS CoV-2-related fatalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arianna Giorgetti
- Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Unit of Legal Medicine, University of Bologna, Via Irnerio 49, 40126 Bologna, Italy;
| | - Vasco Orazietti
- Department of Excellence of Biomedical Sciences and Public Health, University “Politecnica delle Marche” of Ancona, Via Conca 71, 60126 Ancona, Italy; (V.O.); (F.P.B.); (R.G.)
| | - Francesco Paolo Busardò
- Department of Excellence of Biomedical Sciences and Public Health, University “Politecnica delle Marche” of Ancona, Via Conca 71, 60126 Ancona, Italy; (V.O.); (F.P.B.); (R.G.)
| | - Filippo Pirani
- Department of Excellence of Biomedical Sciences and Public Health, University “Politecnica delle Marche” of Ancona, Via Conca 71, 60126 Ancona, Italy; (V.O.); (F.P.B.); (R.G.)
| | - Raffaele Giorgetti
- Department of Excellence of Biomedical Sciences and Public Health, University “Politecnica delle Marche” of Ancona, Via Conca 71, 60126 Ancona, Italy; (V.O.); (F.P.B.); (R.G.)
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