Abstract

Pathological Autopsy has been the mainstay of understanding the concepts of diseases. Histopathological changes due to Covid 19 infection in various organs are not well documented, especially in the heart. Objective: Describe the histomorphology in major organs - heart, lung and brain in autopsy specimens of COVID positive patients. Determination of a possible pathophysiological outcome as cause of death. Materials and methods: Descriptive Cross-sectional Autopsy Study conducted in the Departments of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, Government Medical College, Manjeri over a one-year period. All RTPCR proven COVID positive deaths, irrespective of any other known / medicolegal cause of death were included in the study. Results: Eleven autopsy cases were studied in the 1-year period. Diffuse alveolar damage of Lung was observed in 2 of the eleven patients. 4 of the eleven patients had histologic findings consistent with Ischemic Heart Disease. The rest of the patients (5 in number) were 50 years and below and had no evidence of coronary artery disease. These cases had Myocarditis with myofiber loss in random sections. The youngest case in this series was 16 years of age. Conclusions: Cardiovascular disease appeared to be the major finding related to death in majority of COVID patients; this included Myocardial infarction as well as Myocarditis. COVID induced inflammatory changes in the heart appear to play a major role in its pathogenesis.

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