Use of post-mortem chest computed tomography in Covid-19 pneumonia.
Forensic Sci Int
; 325: 110851, 2021 Aug.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1244737
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIM:
COVID-19 is an extremely challenging disease, both from a clinical and forensic point of view, and performing autopsies of COVID-19 deceased requires adequately equipped sectorial rooms and exposes health professionals to the risk of contagion. Among one of the categories that are most affected by SARS-Cov-2 infection are the elderly residents. Despite the need for prompt diagnoses, which are essential to implement all isolation measures necessary to contain the infection spread, deceased subjects in long-term care facilities are still are often diagnosed post-mortem. In this context, our study focuses on the use of post-mortem computed tomography for the diagnosis of COVID-19 infection, in conjunction with post-mortem swabs. The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of post-mortem whole CT-scanning in identifying COVID-19 pneumonia as a cause of death, by comparing chest CT-findings of confirmed COVID-19 fatalities to control cases. MATERIALS ANDMETHODS:
The study included 24 deceasedsubjects:
13 subjects coming from long-term care facility and 11 subjects died at home. Whole body CT scans were performed within 48 h from death in all subjects to evaluate the presence and distribution of pulmonary abnormalities typical of COVID-19-pneumonia, including ground-glass opacities (GGO), consolidation, and pleural effusion to confirm the post-mortem diagnosis.RESULTS:
Whole-body CT scans was feasible and allowed a complete diagnosis in all subjects. In 9 (69%) of the 13 cases from long-term care facility the cause of death was severe COVID 19 pneumonia, while GGO were present in 100% of the study population.CONCLUSION:
In the context of rapidly escalating COVID-19 outbreaks, given that laboratory tests for the novel coronavirus is time-consuming and can be falsely negative, the post-mortem CT can be considered as a reliable and safe modality to confirm COVID-19 pneumonia. This is especially true for specific postmortem chest CT-findings that are rather characteristic of COVID-19 fatalities.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
/
COVID-19
/
Lung
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
Forensic Sci Int
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS