{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,13]],"date-time":"2026-05-13T01:51:20Z","timestamp":1778637080960,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,28]],"date-time":"2021-07-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1627430400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001711","name":"Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur F\u00f6rderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["310030_172954"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["310030_172954"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001711","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001711","name":"Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur F\u00f6rderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["31CA30_196852"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["31CA30_196852"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001711","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Diagnostics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>We report postmortem cardio-pulmonary findings including detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue in 12 patients with COVID-19. The 5 women and 7 men (median age: 73 years; range 35\u201396) died 6\u201338 days after onset of symptoms (median: 14.5 days). Eight patients received mechanical ventilation. Ten patients showed diffuse alveolar damage (DAD), 7 as exudative and 3 as proliferative\/organizing DAD. One case presented as acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia. Seven patients (58%) had acute bronchopneumonia, 1\/7 without associated DAD and 1\/7 with aspergillosis and necrotic bronchitis. Microthrombi were present in 5 patients, only in exudative DAD. Reverse transcriptase quantitative PCR detected high virus amounts in 6 patients (50%) with exudative DAD and symptom-duration \u226414 days, supported by immunohistochemistry and in-situ RNA hybridization (RNAscope). The 6 patients with low viral copy levels were symptomatic for \u226515 days, comprising all cases with organizing DAD, the patient without DAD and one exudative DAD. We show the high prevalence of DAD as a reaction pattern in COVID-19, the high number of overlying acute bronchopneumonia, and high-level pulmonary virus detection limited to patients who died \u22642 weeks after onset of symptoms, correlating with exudative phase of DAD.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/diagnostics11081357","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,28]],"date-time":"2021-07-28T11:12:52Z","timestamp":1627470772000},"page":"1357","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Postmortem Cardiopulmonary Pathology in Patients with COVID-19 Infection: Single-Center Report of 12 Autopsies from Lausanne, Switzerland"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5442-9791","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sabina","family":"Berezowska","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0442-2772","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Karine","family":"Lefort","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kalliopi","family":"Ioannidou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Daba-Rokhya","family":"Ndiaye","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Damien","family":"Maison","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Constantinos","family":"Petrovas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Samuel","family":"Rotman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nathalie","family":"Piazzon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dina","family":"Milowich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nathalie","family":"Sala","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chun-Yi","family":"Tsai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Eleonore","family":"Multone","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pierre-Yves","family":"Bochud","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medicine, Service of Infectious Diseases, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 46, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6155-2525","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mauro","family":"Oddo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Adult Intensive Care Medicine Service, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 46, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"},{"name":"Medical Direction for Research and Education, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 21, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6840-375X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bettina","family":"Bisig","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Laurence","family":"de Leval","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Institute of Pathology, Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 25, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1239","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.2020.2648","article-title":"Characteristics of and Important Lessons From the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China: Summary of a Report of 72314 Cases From the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention","volume":"323","author":"Wu","year":"2020","journal-title":"JAMA"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"(2021, May 19). 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