PATHOMORPHOLOGY OF POST-COVID MYOCARDITIS

Abstract

This paper provides an elaborate morphological analysis of myocardial tissue of patients who succumbed to post-COVID myocarditis. It was conducted on 24 autopsy cases that had clinically aggravated symptoms of cardiac injury after they contracted COVID-19 infection. The leading causes of death were infectious cardiomegaly (5 cases), heart failure (4 cases), decompensated myocarditis with arrhythmia (6 cases), pulmonary artery thromboembolism (3 cases) and pulmonary edema (6 cases). Histopathological analysis showed that there were progressive alterative, dystrophic, and necrobiotic changes in the vascular walls of the myocardium, edema, mucoid degeneration and muscle fiber myolysis. Cardiomyocytes necrosis, sarcomere fragmentation, myxomatosis, calcidosis, and formation of lymphocytic thrombi were noted. The typical post-COVID myocarditis pathophysiology was characterized by the diffuse interstitial edema, lymphoid infiltration, and lymphocytic thrombosis of the myocardial veins.