Respiratory failure in COVID-19 is characterized by widespread disruption of the lung's alveolar gas exchange interface. To elucidate determinants of alveolar lung damage, we performed epithelial and immune cell profiling in lungs from 24 COVID-19 autopsies and 43 uninfected organ donors ages 18-92 years. We found marked loss of type 2 alveolar epithelial (T2AE) cells and increased perialveolar lymphocyte cytotoxicity in all fatal COVID-19 cases, even at early stages before typical patterns of acute lung injury are histologically apparent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF"Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2" (SARS-CoV-2) infection has variable described dermatologic manifestations. "COVID (coronavirus disease) toes" became a hallmark of the disease in young and largely asymptomatic patients, who may have negative test results for SARS-CoV-2. Pernio (chilblains)-like lesions are seen mostly in infected pediatric patients and are purple painful, frequently bilateral, ill-defined plaques with prominent inflammation on histological examination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Although diffuse alveolar damage, a subtype of acute lung injury (ALI), is the most common microscopic pattern in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), other pathologic patterns have been described. The aim of the study was to review autopsies from COVID-19 decedents to evaluate the spectrum of pathology and correlate the results with clinical, laboratory, and radiologic findings.
Methods: A comprehensive and quantitative review from 40 postmortem examinations was performed.