Fig. 1.

Brain from autopsies performed on patients died for SARS-Cov-2.

A. Inferior view of the brain, immediately after evisceration and weighing. The arrow indicates the basilar artery leaning over the pons. Its preservation is important for the correct fixation in formalin of the entire block consisting of the cerebrum, brainstem (midbrain, pons, medulla oblongata) and cerebellum (see figure D). B–C. Examples of areas sampled for ultrastructural examinations and molecular tests. The samples are taken only on one side so to use the contralateral for histological and immunohistochemical comparison. In B the yellow arrowhead indicates the olfactory bulb, the black arrowhead the olfactory tract and the two black points the gyrus rectus of the frontal lobe; the contralateral structures were removed and their fragments were fixed both in glutaraldehyde, in alcohol 70° and in RNAlater. In C the dotted yellow line highlights half of the medulla oblongata removed for special samples. D. Fixation of the brain suspended by immersion in formalin passing a thin rope under the basilar artery and knotting its ends at the joints of the handle of the container. The formalin has to be changed on the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 13th and 20th day; on the fourth day a full-thickness frontal section of the cerebrum is performed immediately at the front of the optical chiasma to facilitate the entrance of the formalin into the lateral ventricles. E–F. On the 27th day the brain (E), brainstem (F) and cerebellum are examined macroscopically and sampled for histological examination. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)