TY  - JOUR
AU  - Elezkurtaj, Sefer
AU  - Greuel, Selina
AU  - Ihlow, Jana
AU  - Michaelis, Edward Georg
AU  - Bischoff, Philip
AU  - Kunze, Catarina Alisa
AU  - Sinn, Bruno Valentin
AU  - Gerhold, Manuela
AU  - Hauptmann, Kathrin
AU  - Ingold-Heppner, Barbara
AU  - Miller, Florian
AU  - Herbst, Hermann
AU  - Corman, Victor
AU  - Martin, Hubert
AU  - Radbruch, Helena
AU  - Heppner, Frank L
AU  - Horst, David
TI  - Causes of death and comorbidities in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
JO  - Scientific reports
VL  - 11
IS  - 1
SN  - 2045-2322
CY  - [London]
PB  - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature
M1  - DZNE-2021-00790
SP  - 4263
PY  - 2021
AB  - Infection by the new corona virus strain SARS-CoV-2 and its related syndrome COVID-19 has been associated with more than two million deaths worldwide. Patients of higher age and with preexisting chronic health conditions are at an increased risk of fatal disease outcome. However, detailed information on causes of death and the contribution of pre-existing health conditions to death yet is missing, which can be reliably established by autopsy only. We performed full body autopsies on 26 patients that had died after SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 at the Charité University Hospital Berlin, Germany, or at associated teaching hospitals. We systematically evaluated causes of death and pre-existing health conditions. Additionally, clinical records and death certificates were evaluated. We report findings on causes of death and comorbidities of 26 decedents that had clinically presented with severe COVID-19. We found that septic shock and multi organ failure was the most common immediate cause of death, often due to suppurative pulmonary infection. Respiratory failure due to diffuse alveolar damage presented as immediate cause of death in fewer cases. Several comorbidities, such as hypertension, ischemic heart disease, and obesity were present in the vast majority of patients. Our findings reveal that causes of death were directly related to COVID-19 in the majority of decedents, while they appear not to be an immediate result of preexisting health conditions and comorbidities. We therefore suggest that the majority of patients had died of COVID-19 with only contributory implications of preexisting health conditions to the mechanism of death.
KW  - Adult
KW  - Aged
KW  - Aged, 80 and over
KW  - Autopsy
KW  - Berlin: epidemiology
KW  - COVID-19: complications
KW  - COVID-19: mortality
KW  - COVID-19: therapy
KW  - COVID-19: virology
KW  - Cause of Death
KW  - Comorbidity
KW  - Female
KW  - Hospital Mortality
KW  - Hospitals, Teaching: statistics & numerical data
KW  - Humans
KW  - Hypertension: epidemiology
KW  - Male
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Multiple Organ Failure: mortality
KW  - Multiple Organ Failure: virology
KW  - Myocardial Ischemia: epidemiology
KW  - Obesity: epidemiology
KW  - Prospective Studies
KW  - SARS-CoV-2: isolation & purification
KW  - Shock, Septic: mortality
KW  - Shock, Septic: virology
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:33608563
C2  - pmc:PMC7895917
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s41598-021-82862-5
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/155622
ER  -