Table 1.
Summary of the main histopathological findings of COVID-19 in the studies currently published in the search databases.
| Author/country | Number of biopsies | Number of autopsies | Most important histopathological findings of organs |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lung |
Heart |
Liver |
Kidney |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Diffuse alveolar damage |
Microthrombi/thrombi | Viral cytopathic changes | Viral inclusions | Heart attacks | Inflammatory changes | Pneumonia | Extensive pulmonary fibrosis | Not sampled | Chronic inflammatory infiltrate | Hypertrophy | No specific findings | Not sampled | Lymphocytic myocarditis | Steatosis | Inflammation | Necrosis | No specific finding | Not sampled | Acute tubular injury | Not sampled | Collapse of glomerular capillaries | No specific findings | |||||
| Exudative stage | Proliferative phase | Fibrotic phase | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bryce et al. [15]/USA | 67 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||
| Carsana et al. [16]/Italy | 38 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||||||||
| Bradley et al. [17]/USA | 12 | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Schaller et al. [18]/Germany | 12 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||||||||
| Remmelink et al. [19]/Belgium | 17 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||||||
| Nunes Duarte-Neto et al. [20]/Brazil | 10 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||
| Prilutskiy A et al. [21]/USA | 4 | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Xu et al. [22]/China | 1 | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Konopka, et al. [23]/USA | 1 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||||||||
| Yan et al. [24]/USA | 1 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||||||||
| Fitzek et al. [25]/Germany | 1 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||||||||
| Autopsias [26]/Spain | 1 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||
| Luo et al. [27]/China | 1 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||
| Tian et al. [28]/China | 2 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||||||||
| Kuang et al. [29]/China | 1 | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Pernazza et al. [30]/Italy | 1 | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Barton et al. [31]/USA | 2 | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Tian et al. [32]/China | 4 | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Fox et al. [33]/USA | 4 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||||||||
| Zhang et al. [34]/China | 1 | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Yao et al. [35]/China | 3 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||||||||
| Li et al. [36]/USA | 1 | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Su et al. [37]/China | 26 | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rossi et al. [38]/Italy | 1 | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Peleg et al. [39]/Africa | 1 | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wichmann et al. [40]/Germany | 12 | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Dolhnikoff et al. [43]/Brazil | 10 | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 9 | 226 | 22 | 9 | 3 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 16 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 18 | 3 | 19 | 1 | 4 |
Abbreviations: COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019.