Pushpanjali R Ojha*
Pathology Trauma Center lab, Ranchi University/Rajendra Institute of Medical sciences, India
*Corresponding Author: Pushpanjali R Ojha, Pathology Trauma Center lab, Ranchi University/Rajendra Institute of Medical sciences, India.
Received: August 17, 2023; Published: September 28, 2023
Objective: To explore the role of minimally invasive trucut autopsy as a safe and rapid approach to obtain brain tissues and to identify histopathological spectrum of brain injury among COVID-19 deceased cases.
Methods: Minimally invasive trucut autopsy was done via bilateral transorbital approach through medial canthus to obtain single cores of brain tissues from each side among COVID-19 deceased cases after obtaining written informed consent from the attendants of the deceased. Histopathological examination was done by two independent pathologists after tissue processing and findings were recorded.
Results: Out of ten trucut autopsies, three were excluded due to loss of tissue during processing and four out of seven were showing histopathological features of acute cerebral injury, viral encephalitis and cerebrovascular thrombotic microangiopathy. Rest three brain tissues were normal histologically. All cases were critically ill with COVID-19, have comorbidities and poor compliance with COVID-19 specific management.
Conclusion: We conclude that MIA is a rapid, cost-effective, safer technique with higher diagnostic yield. It can provide significant histopathological findings for confirmative diagnosis among histopathologically unknown highly infectious diseases. We also observed that brain tissues can be affected in COVID-19 by direct cytotropic effect of virus through olfactory bulb or indirectly by systemic response. Presence of vacuolations and inclusions in brain biopsy must be further examined for RNA isolation for further confirmation. These findings strengthen our hypothesis of long COVID-19 associated Neurological complications resulting from virus induced brain injury.
Keywords: Minimally Invasive Brain Autopsy; Histopathological Spectrum; Covid-19 Deceased; Conventional Autopsy
Citation: Pushpanjali R Ojha. “Role of Minimally Invasive Autopsy in Identifying Histopathological Abnormalities in Brain among COVID-19 Deceased Cases: An Interesting Case Series". Acta Scientific Neurology 6.10 (2023): 30-36.
Copyright: © 2023 Pushpanjali R Ojha. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.