Postmortem Minimally Invasive Autopsy in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients at the Bedside: A Proof-of-Concept Study at the ICU.

Background: Economic restrictions and workforce cuts have continually challenged conventional autopsies. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has added tissue quality and safety requirements to the investigation of this disease, thereby launching efforts to upgrade autopsy strategies.

Methods: In this proof-of-concept study, we performed bedside ultrasound-guided minimally invasive autopsy (US-MIA) in the ICU of critically ill COVID-19 patients using a structured protocol to obtain non-autolyzed tissue.

Pre-operative cellular dissociation grading in biopsies is highly predictive of post-operative tumour stage and patient outcome in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: Pre-operative treatment planning in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is mainly dictated by clinical staging, which has major shortcomings. Histologic grading is irrelevant due to its lack of prognostic impact. Recently, a novel grading termed Cellular Dissociation Grade (CDG) based on Tumour Budding and Cell Nest Size was shown to be highly prognostic for resected HNSCC.

Cellular Dissociation Grading Based on the Parameters Tumor Budding and Cell Nest Size in Pretherapeutic Biopsy Specimens Allows for Prognostic Patient Stratification in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Independent From Clinical Staging.

Initial treatment planning in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma mainly relies on clinical staging. Recently, a highly prognostic grading system based on the cellular dissociation parameters Tumor Budding and Cell Nest Size has been proposed for resected esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. To probe for the transferability and relevance of this established novel grading system in the pretreatment setting, we evaluated Tumor Budding/Cell Nest Size in pretherapeutic biopsies of either primarily resected (cohort 1, n=80) or neoadjuvantly treated (cohort 2, n=75) esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.