Coronavirus autopsies: A story of 38 brains, 87 lungs, and 42 hearts

[Nevilledog]

https://www.boston.com/news/health/2020/07/01/covid-autopsies


When pathologist Amy Rapkiewicz began the grim process of opening up the coronavirus dead to learn how their bodies went awry, she found damage to the lungs, kidneys and liver consistent with what doctors had reported for months.

But something was off.

Rapkiewicz, who directs autopsies at NYU Langone Health, noticed that some organs had far too many of a special type of cell rarely found in those places. She had never seen that before, yet it seemed vaguely familiar. She raced to her history books and – in a eureka moment – found a reference to a 1960’s report on a patient with dengue fever.

In dengue, a mosquito-borne tropical disease, she learned, the virus appeared to destroy these cells, which produce platelets, leading to uncontrolled bleeding. The novel coronavirus seemed to amplify their effect, causing dangerous clotting.

*snip.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. This is a fascinating article--well worth reading! I recommend it. n/t

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. +1. Fascinating definitely. . . . nt

[Botany]

2. The virus seems to be mutating and or finding new areas to attack in the body.

"Our leaders decided to politicize a scientific issue ..."

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213686826



A bit off the topic but we would not being going through this crap with a President Hillary
Clinton for a number of reasons the least of which being that she would not have fired the
Pandemic Response team, the CDC's epidemiologist in Wuhan, or disbanded Obama's multi-
national pandemic strike team called PREDICT.

[not fooled]

4. And when under her presidency

some (much smaller) number of Americans died, the GOPee would be howling uncontrollably.

[bronxiteforever]

3. Kick and recommend for visibility.

Well this is horrifying.

[bobbieinok]

5. Autopsies of virus victins--horrifying!

[yortsed snacilbuper]

7. Most recently,

a study out this month in the Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine, found abnormal clotting in the heart, kidney, liver, as well as the lungs of seven patients, leading the authors to suggest this may be a major cause of the multiple-organ failure in covid-19 patients.

[crickets]

8. Fascinating article, well worth the read. Thanks, Nevilledog. nt

[dalton99a]

9. "Autopsies suggest anti-platelet medications, in addition to blood thinners"

The team from Mount Sinai Health, which took tissue findings from 20 brains, was also perplexed not to find a lot of virus or inflammation. However, the group noted in a paper that the widespread presence of tiny clots was “striking.”

“If you have one blood clot in the brain, we see that all the time. But what we’re seeing is some patients are having multiple strokes in blood vessels that are in two or even three different territories,” Fowkes said.

Rapkiewicz said it is too early to know whether the newest batch of autopsy findings can be translated into treatment changes, but the information has opened new avenues to explore. One of her first calls after noticing the unusual platelet-producing cells was to Jeffrey Berger, a cardiac specialist at NYU who runs a National Institutes of Health-funded lab that focuses on platelets.

Berger said the autopsies suggest anti-platelet medications, in addition to blood thinners, may be helpful to stem the effects of covid-19. He has pivoted a major clinical trial looking at optimal doses of anticoagulants to look at that question as well.

[JudyM]

10. This ties in with the suggestion that a pulse oximeter may be more effective than a thermometer in

early diagnostic screening for Covid.

Another unexpected finding, pathologists said, is that oxygen deprivation of the brain and the formation of blood clots may start early in the disease process. That could have major implications for how people with covid-19 are treated at home, even if they never need to be hospitalized.

Keep one on hand at home and routinely check to see if your pulse ox is getting low, if you have any public exposure.