Post-mortem changes in the organs of persons who died from COVID -19

Post-mortem changes in the lungs revealed as a result of autopsy of those who died from COVID-19 are described. The most pronounced changes in the lungs were detected in the form of diffuse alveolar damage with enlargement of the lungs due to pronounced intraalveolar edema with inflammatory cells, thickening of the hyaline membranes of the walls of the alveoli, with proliferation of type II alveolocytes with the formation of simplasts, the phenomenon of autocytophagy in the alveoli, damage to vessels with numerous hemorrhages, disorders of the rheological properties of the blood with thrombosis and infarcts. The fatal outcome occurred more often in patients of elderly and senile age who had severe chronic diseases, at different times of the disease. Many literary sources indicate that the most common cause of death of patients was acute respiratory distress - a syndrome with diffuse alveolar damage to the lung tissue, the development of thrombosis with spontaneous hemorrhages and heart attacks in vital organs, severe dystrophic necrotic changes in parenchymal organs.