A systematic review of the epidemiology and histopathological findings of pulmonary thrombi at covid-19

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i8.16983

Keywords:

Pathology; Autopsy; Histopathology; Coronavirus infections.

Abstract

Some of the pacients affected by COVID-19 present thrombi. The objective of this study was to assess the association between comorbidities of COVID-19 and thrombi in the lungs. Articles with the descriptors “Pathology”, “Autopsy”, “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2” were extracted from the databases: Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE/PUBMED), Cochrane Library, Virtual Health Library (VHL), Web of Science and Scopus. Eligibility criteria were: articles in English, published between January 1 and May 28, 2020, with confirmed cases of COVID-19, with description of necropsy and analysis pulmonary histopathological. The data were tabulated: age, sex, comorbidities, time of disease evolution and macro and microscopic findings of the lungs. Twenty articles were included, totaling 119 necropsies, most of them original articles or case reports Regarding gender, 86 were male, 23 female and 10 were undetermined. Seventy-five of the individuals included had thrombi in the lungs, among these, 98.7% had diffuse alveolar damage (DAD). male or that patients with hypertension, diabetes or deep vein thrombosis (DVT) were more likely to have thrombi in their lungs. Approximately 70% of the analyzed patients were between 60 and 89 years old. The average length of hospital stay was 6.4 days. In 90.7% of the pulmonary histological samples, aspects of DAD were identified. Of the macroscopic findings of the lungs, the most prevalent was “heavy lungs”, of which 92.1% had thrombi. Hospitalized patients have a greater chance of dying within the 9th day of hospitalization. The work identified cases of thrombi in the lungs more frequently in individuals with DVT, diabetes and hypertension.

References

Ackermann, M., Verleden, S. E., Kuehnel, .M, Haverich, A., Welte, T., Laenger, F., et al. (2020). Pulmonary Vascular Endothelialitis, Thrombosis, and Angiogenesis in Covid-19. N Engl J Med [Internet], NEJMoa2015432. http://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2015432

Adachi, T., Chong, J. M., Nakajima, N., Sano, M., Yamazaki, J., Miyamoto, I., Nishioka, H., Akita, H., Sato, Y., Kataoka, M., Katano, H., Tobiume, M., Sekizuka, T., Itokawa, K., Kuroda, M., & Suzuki, T. (2020). Clinicopathologic and Immunohistochemical Findings from Autopsy of Patient with COVID-19, Japan. Emerging infectious diseases, 26(9), 2157–2161. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2609.201353

Aguiar, D., Lobrinus, J. A., Schibler, M., Fracasso, T., & Lardi, C. (2020). Inside the lungs of COVID-19 disease. International journal of legal medicine, 134(4), 1271–1274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02318-9

Ahmad, O. B., Boschi-pinto, C., & Lopez, A. D. (2001). Age standardization of rates: a new WHO standard. GPE Discuss Pap Ser., (31), 1–14.

Alsaad, K. O., Hajeer, A. H., Al Balwi, M., Al Moaiqel, M., Al Oudah, N., Al Ajlan, A., AlJohani, S., Alsolamy, S., Gmati, G. E., Balkhy, H., Al-Jahdali, H. H., Baharoon, S. A., & Arabi, Y. M. (2018). Histopathology of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronovirus (MERS-CoV) infection - clinicopathological and ultrastructural study. Histopathology, 72(3), 516–524. https://doi.org/10.1111/his.13379

Barth, R. F., Xu, X., & Buja, L. M. (2020). A Call to Action: The Need for Autopsies to Determine the Full Extent of Organ Involvement Associated With COVID-19. Chest, 158(1), 43–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2020.03.060

Barton, L. M., Duval, E. J., Stroberg, E., Ghosh, S., & Mukhopadhyay, S. (2020). COVID-19 Autopsies, Oklahoma, USA. Am J Clin Pathol., 153(6), 725–33.

Breithaupt-Faloppa, A. C., Correia, C. J., Prado, C. M., Stilhano, R. S., Ureshino, R. P., & Moreira L. F. P. (2020). 17β-Estradiol, a potential ally to alleviate SARS-CoV-2 infection. Clinics (Sao Paulo), 75, e1980.

Buja, L. M., Wolf, D., Zhao, B., Akkanti, B., McDonald, M., Lelenwa, L., et al. (2020). The emerging spectrum of cardiopulmonary pathology of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Report of 3 autopsies from Houston, Texas, and review of autopsy findings from other United States cities. Cardiovasc Pathol [Internet], 48, 107233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carpath.2020.107233

Carsana, L., Sonzogni, A., Nasr, A., Rossi, R. S., Pellegrinelli, A., Zerbi, P., et al. (2020). Pulmonary post-mortem findings in a series of COVID-19 cases from northern Italy: a two-centre descriptive study. Lancet Infect Dis [Internet], 0(0), 6–11. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1473309920304345

Ceriello A. (1993). Coagulation activation in diabetes mellitus: the role of hyperglycaemia and therapeutic prospects. Diabetologia, 36(11), 1119–1125. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401055

Ceriello, A., Standl, E., Catrinoiu, D., Itzhak, B., Lalic, N. M., Rahelic, D., Schnell, O., Škrha, J., Valensi, P., & Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease (D&CVD) EASD Study Group (2020). Issues of Cardiovascular Risk Management in People With Diabetes in the COVID-19 Era. Diabetes care, 43(7), 1427–1432. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-0941

Chatzidionysiou, K., Svenungsson, E., & Faustini, F. (2020). Could severe COVID-19 be considered a complementopathy?. Lupus science & medicine, 7(1), e000415. https://doi.org/10.1136/lupus-2020-000415

Chen, T., Wu, D., Chen, H., Yan, W., Yang, D., Chen, G., et al. (2020). Clinical characteristics of 113 deceased patients with coronavirus disease 2019: Retrospective study. BMJ, 368(December 2019), 1–14.

Cheung, O. Y., Graziano, P., & Smith, M. L. (2017). Acute Lung Injury. In: Practical Pulmonary Pathology: A Diagnostic Approach A Volume in the Pattern Recognition Series, p. 125–46.

Craver, R., Huber, S., Sandomirsky, M., McKenna, D., Schieffelin, J., & Finger, L. (2020). Fatal Eosinophilic Myocarditis in a Healthy 17-Year-Old Male with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2c). Fetal and pediatric pathology, 39(3), 263–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/15513815.2020.1761491

Da Costa, M. G., Poppelaars, F., Van Kooten, C., Mollnes, T. E., Tedesco, F., Würzner, R., et al. (2018). Age and sex-associated changes of complement activity and complement levels in a healthy caucasian population. Front Immunol., 9(NOV).

Esmon, C. T. (2005). The interactions between inflammation and coagulation. Br J Haematol., 131(4), 417–30.

Farkash, E. A., Wilson, A. M., & Jentzen, J. M. (2020). Ultrastructural Evidence for Direct Renal Infection with SARS-CoV-2. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, 31(8), 1683–1687. https://doi.org/10.1681/ASN.2020040432

Fox, S. E., Akmatbekov, A., Harbert, J. L., Li, G., Quincy Brown, J, & Vander Heide, R. S. (2020). Pulmonary and cardiac pathology in African American patients with COVID-19: an autopsy series from New Orleans. Lancet Respir Med [Internet], (January), 19–21. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2213260020302435

Gebhard, C., Regitz-Zagrosek, V., Neuhauser, H. K., Morgan, R., & Klein, S. L. (2020). Impact of sex and gender on COVID-19 outcomes in Europe. Biology of sex differences, 11(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-020-00304-9

Gorbalenya, A. E., Baker, S. C., Baric, R. S., de Groot, R. J., Drosten, C., Gulyaeva, A. A., et al. (2020). The species Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus: classifying 2019-nCoV and naming it SARS-CoV-2. Nat Microbiol., 5(4), 536–44.

Guan, W., Ni, Z., Hu, Y., Liang, W., Ou, C., He, J., et al. (2020). Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China. N Engl J Med., 382(18), 1708–20.

Helms, J., Tacquard, C., Severac, F., Leonard-Lorant, I., Ohana, M., Delabranche, X., Merdji, H., Clere-Jehl, R., Schenck, M., Fagot Gandet, F., Fafi-Kremer, S., Castelain, V., Schneider, F., Grunebaum, L., Anglés-Cano, E., Sattler, L., Mertes, P. M., Meziani, F., & CRICS TRIGGERSEP Group (Clinical Research in Intensive Care and Sepsis Trial Group for Global Evaluation and Research in Sepsis) (2020). High risk of thrombosis in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection: a multicenter prospective cohort study. Intensive care medicine, 46(6), 1089–1098. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-020-06062-x

Huang, C., Wang, Y., Li, X., Ren, L., Zhao, J., Hu, Y., et al. (2020). Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet., 395(10223), 497–506.

Iba, T., Levy, J. H., Levi, M., Connors, J. M., & Thachil, J. (2020). Coagulopathy of Coronavirus Disease 2019. Critical care medicine, 48(9), 1358–1364. https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000004458

Iba, T., Levy, J. H., Connors, J. M., Warkentin, T. E., Thachil, J., & Levi, M. (2020). The unique characteristics of COVID-19 coagulopathy. Crit Care., 24(1), 360.

Jin, H., Hong, C., Chen, S., Zhou, Y., Wang, Y., Mao, L, et al. (2020). Consensus for prevention and management of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for neurologists. Stroke Vasc Neurol., (M), 1–6.

Jose, R. J., & Manuel, A. (2020). COVID-19 cytokine storm: the interplay between inflammation and coagulation. Lancet Respir Med., 8(6), e46–7.

Kang, S. J., & Jung, S. I. (2020). Age Related Morbidity and Mortality among Patients with COVID-19. Infect Chemother, 52(2), 154–64.

Kang, Y., Chen, T., Mui, D., Ferrari, V., Jagasia, D., Scherrer-Crosbie, M., et al. (2020). Cardiovascular manifestations and treatment considerations in covid-19. Heart., 2, 1–10.

Karami, P., Naghavi, M., Feyzi, A., Aghamohammadi, M., Novin, M. S., Mobaien, A., Qorbanisani, M., Karami, A., & Norooznezhad, A. H. (2020). WITHDRAWN: Mortality of a pregnant patient diagnosed with COVID-19: A case report with clinical, radiological, and histopathological findings. Travel medicine and infectious disease, 101665. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101665

Kesieme, E., Kesieme, C., Jebbin, N., Irekpita, E., & Dongo, A. (2011). Deep vein thrombosis: a clinical review. Journal of blood medicine, 2, 59–69. https://doi.org/10.2147/JBM.S19009

Klok, F. A., Kruip, M., van der Meer, N., Arbous, M. S., Gommers, D., Kant, K. M., Kaptein, F., van Paassen, J., Stals, M., Huisman, M. V., & Endeman, H. (2020). Incidence of thrombotic complications in critically ill ICU patients with COVID-19. Thrombosis research, 191, 145–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.thromres.2020.04.013

Konopka, K. E., Wilson, A., & Myers, J. L. (2020). Postmortem Lung Findings in a Patient With Asthma and Coronavirus Disease 2019. Chest, 158(3), e99–e101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2020.04.032

La Cava, A., & Matarese, G. (2004). The weight of leptin in immunity. Nature reviews. Immunology, 4(5), 371–379. https://doi.org/10.1038/nri1350

Lacy, J. M., Brooks, E. G., Akers, J., Armstrong, D., Decker, L., Gonzalez, A., Humphrey, W., Mayer, R., Miller, M., Perez, C., Arango, J., Sathyavagiswaran, L., Stroh, W., & Utley, S. (2020). COVID-19: Postmortem Diagnostic and Biosafety Considerations. The American journal of forensic medicine and pathology, 41(3), 143–151. https://doi.org/10.1097/PAF.0000000000000567

Lax, S. F., Skok, K., Zechner, P., Kessler, H. H., Kaufmann, N., Koelblinger, C., et al. (2020). Pulmonary Arterial Thrombosis in COVID-19 With Fatal Outcome: Results From a Prospective, Single-Center, Clinicopathologic Case Series. Ann Intern Med [Internet], M20-2566. https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-2566

Lip, G. Y. (2000). Hypertension and the prothrombotic state. Journal of human hypertension, 14(10-11), 687–690. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1001051

Lip, G. Y., & Blann, A. D. (2000). Does hypertension confer a prothrombotic state? Virchow's triad revisited. Circulation, 101(3), 218–220. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.cir.101.3.218

Lu, L., Zhong, W., Bian, Z., Li, Z., Zhang, K., Liang, B., Zhong, Y., Hu, M., Lin, L., Liu, J., Lin, X., Huang, Y., Jiang, J., Yang, X., Zhang, X., & Huang, Z. (2020). A comparison of mortality-related risk factors of COVID-19, SARS, and MERS: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Journal of infection, 81(4), e18–e25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2020.07.002

Magro, C., Mulvey, J. J., Berlin, D., Nuovo, G., Salvatore, S., Harp, J., Baxter-Stoltzfus, A., & Laurence, J. (2020). Complement associated microvascular injury and thrombosis in the pathogenesis of severe COVID-19 infection: A report of five cases. Translational research : the journal of laboratory and clinical medicine, 220, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trsl.2020.04.007

Menter, T., Haslbauer, J. D., Nienhold, R., Savic, S., Hopfer, H., Deigendesch, N., Frank, S., Turek, D., Willi, N., Pargger, H., Bassetti, S., Leuppi, J. D., Cathomas, G., Tolnay, M., Mertz, K. D., & Tzankov, A. (2020). Postmortem examination of COVID-19 patients reveals diffuse alveolar damage with severe capillary congestion and variegated findings in lungs and other organs suggesting vascular dysfunction. Histopathology, 77(2), 198–209. https://doi.org/10.1111/his.14134

Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D. G., & PRISMA Group (2009). Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. PLoS medicine, 6(7), e1000097. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097

Nunes Duarte-Neto, A., de Almeida Monteiro, R. A., da Silva, L. F. F., Malheiros, D. M. A. C., de Oliveira, E. P., Theodoro Filho, J., et al. (2020). Pulmonary and systemic involvement of COVID-19 assessed by ultrasound-guided minimally invasive autopsy. Histopathology [Internet], 0–2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32443177

Osman, A. A., Ju, W., Sun, D., & Qi, B. (2018). Deep venous thrombosis: a literature review. Int J Clin Exp Med., 11(3), 1551–61.

Paranjpe, I., Fuster, V., Lala, A., Russak, A. J., Glicksberg, B. S., Levin, M. A., Charney, A. W., Narula, J., Fayad, Z. A., Bagiella, E., Zhao, S., & Nadkarni, G. N. (2020). Association of Treatment Dose Anticoagulation With In-Hospital Survival Among Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 76(1), 122–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2020.05.001

Paz-Filho, G., Mastronardi, C., Franco, C. B., Wang, K. B., Wong, M. L., & Licinio, J. (2012). Leptin: molecular mechanisms, systemic pro-inflammatory effects, and clinical implications. Arq Bras Endocrinol Metabol., 56(9), 597–607.

Pei, G., Zhang, Z., Peng, J., Liu, L., Zhang, C., Yu, C., et al. (2020). Renal Involvement and Early Prognosis in Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia. J Am Soc Nephrol., 2019, 1–9.

Polak, S. B., Van Gool, I. C., Cohen, D., von der Thüsen, J. H., & van Paassen, J. (2020). A systematic review of pathological findings in COVID-19: a pathophysiological timeline and possible mechanisms of disease progression. Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc, 33(11), 2128–2138. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41379-020-0603-3

Ramos Muniz, M. G., Palfreeman, M., Setzu, N., Sanchez, M. A., Saenz Portillo, P., Garza, K. M., Gosselink, K. L., & Spencer, C. T. (2018). Obesity Exacerbates the Cytokine Storm Elicited by Francisella tularensis Infection of Females and Is Associated with Increased Mortality. BioMed research international, 2018, 3412732. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/3412732

Schweitzer, W., Ruder, T., Baumeister, R., Bolliger, S., Thali, M., Meixner, E., & Ampanozi, G. (2020). Implications for forensic death investigations from first Swiss post-mortem CT in a case of non-hospital treatment with COVID-19. Forensic Imaging, 21, 200378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fri.2020.200378

Sekulic, M., Harper, H., Nezami, B. G., Shen, D. L., Sekulic, S. P., Koeth A. T., et al. (2020). Molecular Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in FFPE Samples and Histopathologic Findings in Fatal SARS-CoV-2 Cases. Am J Clin Pathol [Internet], 1–11. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32451533

Sex, gender and COVID-19: overview and resources [Internet]. (2020). Global Health 50/50. https://globalhealth5050.org/covid19/

Tan, W., Zhao, X., Ma, X., Wang, W., Niu, P., Xu, W., et al. (2020). Notes from the Field A Novel Coronavirus Genome Identified in a Cluster of Pneumonia Cases — Wuhan , China 2019 − 2020. China CDC Wkly., 2(4), 61–2.

Tang, N., Li, D., Wang, X., & Sun, Z. (2020). Abnormal coagulation parameters are associated with poor prognosis in patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia. Journal of thrombosis and haemostasis : JTH, 18(4), 844–847. https://doi.org/10.1111/jth.14768

Thachil, J., Tang, N., Gando, S., Falanga, A., Cattaneo, M., Levi, M., Clark, C., & Iba, T. (2020). ISTH interim guidance on recognition and management of coagulopathy in COVID-19. Journal of thrombosis and haemostasis : JTH, 18(5), 1023–1026. https://doi.org/10.1111/jth.14810

Varga, Z., Flammer, A. J., Steiger, P., Haberecker, M., Andermatt, R., Zinkernagel, A. S., Mehra, M. R., Schuepbach, R. A., Ruschitzka, F., & Moch, H. (2020). Endothelial cell infection and endotheliitis in COVID-19. Lancet (London, England), 395(10234), 1417–1418. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30937-5

Wang, D., Hu, B., Hu, C., Zhu, F., Liu, X., Zhang, J., et al. (2020). Clinical Characteristics of 138 Hospitalized Patients with 2019 Novel Coronavirus-Infected Pneumonia in Wuhan, China. JAMA - J Am Med Assoc., 323(11), 1061–9.

Wichmann, D., Sperhake, J. P., Lütgehetmann, M., Steurer, S., Edler, C., Heinemann, A., Heinrich, F., Mushumba, H., Kniep, I., Schröder, A. S., Burdelski, C., de Heer, G., Nierhaus, A., Frings, D., Pfefferle, S., Becker, H., Bredereke-Wiedling, H., de Weerth, A., Paschen, H. R., Sheikhzadeh-Eggers, S., Kluge, S. (2020). Autopsy Findings and Venous Thromboembolism in Patients With COVID-19: A Prospective Cohort Study. Annals of internal medicine, 173(4), 268–277. https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-2003

World Health Organization (WHO). (2020). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Situation Report - 162 https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/20200630-covid-19-sitrep-162.pdf?sfvrsn=e00a5466_2

Wu, Y., Hou, B., Liu, J., Chen, Y., & Zhong, P. (2020). Risk Factors Associated With Long-Term Hospitalization in Patients With COVID-19: A Single-Centered, Retrospective Study. Frontiers in medicine, 7, 315. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2020.00315

Xie, M., & Chen, Q. (2020). Insight into 2019 novel coronavirus — An updated interim review and lessons from SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Int J Infect Dis [Internet], 94, 119–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.03.071

Yan, L., Mir, M., Sanchez, P., Beg, M., Peters, J., Enriquez, O., & Gilbert, A. (2020a). COVID-19 in a Hispanic Woman. Archives of pathology & laboratory medicine, 144(9), 1041–1047. https://doi.org/10.5858/arpa.2020-0217-SA

Yan, Y., Yang, Y., Wang, F., Ren, H., Zhang, S., Shi, X., et al. (2020b). Clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with severe covid-19 with diabetes. BMJ Open Diabetes Res Care., 8(1), 1–9.

Ye, Q., Wang, B., Mao, J., Fu, J., Shang, S., Shu, Q., & Zhang, T. (2020). Epidemiological analysis of COVID-19 and practical experience from China. Journal of medical virology, 92(7), 755–769. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.25813

Yoshikawa, A., Fukuoka, J., & Andrey, B. (2018). Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) / diffuse alveolar damage (DAD). [Internet]. PathologyOutlines.com website http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/lungnontumordiffusealveolardamage.html

Yu, P., Qi, F., Xu, Y., Li, F., Liu, P., Liu, J., et al. (2020). Age‐related rhesus macaque models of COVID‐19. Anim Model Exp Med., 3(1), 93–7.

Zhou, F., Yu, T., Du, R., Fan, G., Liu, Y., Liu, Z., et al. (2020a). Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet., 395(10229), 1054–62.

Zhou, Y., Li, W., Wang, D., Mao, L., Jin, H., Li, Y., et al. (2020b). Clinical time course of COVID-19, its neurological manifestation and some thoughts on its management. Stroke Vasc Neurol., svn-2020-000398.

Zhu, N., Zhang, D., Wang, W., Li, X., Yang, B., Song, J., et al. (2020). A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med., 382(8), 727–33.

Published

03/07/2021

How to Cite

PERSIANO, C. B.; LIMA, I. L.; MEIRELLES, G. A.; CARVALHO, A. A. B. de. A systematic review of the epidemiology and histopathological findings of pulmonary thrombi at covid-19. Research, Society and Development, [S. l.], v. 10, n. 8, p. e0410816983, 2021. DOI: 10.33448/rsd-v10i8.16983. Disponível em: https://www.rsdjournal.org/index.php/rsd/article/view/16983. Acesso em: 24 apr. 2024.

Issue

Section

Health Sciences