Influenza virus and coronavirus pandemics regularly sweep the globe, at great cost of health and economy. Our aim was to conduct a PubMed search for autopsy studies on influenza and coronavirus to investigate the contribution of autopsies during pandemics, focussing on autopsy methods and procedures and the role of autopsy findings in pandemics. The retrieved autopsy studies generally relied on microscopy, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), immunostaining and electron microscopy. Most were small and reported on lung effects, including diffuse alveolar damage (DAD), pneumonia and tracheobronchitis. Antibiotic therapy has diminished a role for bacterial pneumonia, whereas obesity is an emerging risk factor. Autopsy studies have provided new insights into coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) treatments like anti-coagulative therapy. Unfortunately, autopsies during pandemics are hampered by lack of guidelines, facilities and expertise for handling potentially infectious corpses and by widely varying recommendations for personal protective equipment and procedures. The Department of Forensic Pathology, at the Forensic Institute, at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark has, in collaboration with the Department of Pathology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, initiated a prospective observational study on COVID-19-related deaths encompassing postmortem imaging, standardized autopsy procedures/reporting and extensive tissue sampling for histological, chemical, microbiological and genetic analysis. The study involves a diverse array of research groups at the University of Copenhagen, and the clinical field.

中文翻译：

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流行病中的尸检——对障碍和好处的看法。是时候复兴了吗？


流感病毒和冠状病毒大流行经常席卷全球，给健康和经济造成巨大损失。我们的目的是对流感和冠状病毒的尸检研究进行 PubMed 搜索，以调查大流行期间尸检的贡献，重点关注尸检方法和程序以及尸检结果在大流行中的作用。检索到的尸检研究通常依赖于显微镜、聚合酶链反应（PCR）、免疫染色和电子显微镜。大多数规模较小，并报告了肺部影响，包括弥漫性肺泡损伤（DAD）、肺炎和气管支气管炎。抗生素治疗削弱了细菌性肺炎的作用，而肥胖是一个新出现的危险因素。尸检研究为抗凝治疗等 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 治疗提供了新见解。不幸的是，由于缺乏处理潜在感染性尸体的指南、设施和专业知识，以及对个人防护设备和程序的建议差异很大，大流行期间的尸检受到阻碍。丹麦哥本哈根大学法医研究所法医病理学系与哥本哈根 Rigshospitalet 病理学系合作，启动了一项关于与 COVID-19 相关的死亡的前瞻性观察研究，包括尸检成像、标准化尸检用于组织学、化学、微生物学和遗传分析的程序/报告和广泛的组织取样。该研究涉及哥本哈根大学和临床领域的多个研究小组。