A comprehensive review of histopathological findings of infections induced by COVID-19

Cell Mol Biol (Noisy-le-grand). 2020 Oct 31;66(7):143-151.

Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-Coronavirus (CoV2) virus, first identified in Wuhan, China, caused the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which soon became a global pandemic, as labelled by the World Health Organization (WHO). The transmission method of the infection is primarily through droplets of various sizes. The SARS-CoV2 virus leads to a severe respiratory illness which in the first place causes the simulation of the acute respiratory syndrome. In order to diagnose of COVID-19 efficiently, samples with infection probability need to be examined through histopathological methods. Survival chances of the infected can remarkably increase if the virus is diagnosed timely by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or computed tomography (CT) scan of the chest. One of the destructive effects of COVID-19 is the formation of ground-glass opacity (GGO) in the lungs which might be regarded to be equivalent to high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). COVID-19 acts very similarly to SARS and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) which can be inactivated by the chemical compounds of ethanol and sodium hypochlorite. Epidemiologic characteristics of COVID-19 have been indicated by numerous studies; however, there is still a lack of details of pathologic changes in the lung. The present comprehensive review is an attempt to assess and cover the current state of knowledge on COVID-19 disease based on the histopathologic studies conducted before May 2020.

Keywords: Biopsy; COVID-19; Clinical features; Histopathological changes.; Pneumonia.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Biopsy
  • COVID-19 / complications
  • COVID-19 / diagnosis
  • COVID-19 / pathology*
  • Humans
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Kidney / pathology
  • Liver / pathology
  • Lung / pathology*
  • SARS-CoV-2 / isolation & purification*