Volume 27, Number 1—January 2021
Research Letter
Postmortem Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in Nasopharyngeal Mucosa
Fabian Heinrich
, Kira Meißner, Felicia Langenwalder, Klaus Püschel, Dominik Nörz, Armin Hoffmann, Marc Lütgehetmann, Martin Aepfelbacher, Eric Bibiza-Freiwald, Susanne Pfefferle, and Axel Heinemann
, Kira Meißner, Felicia Langenwalder, Klaus Püschel, Dominik Nörz, Armin Hoffmann, Marc Lütgehetmann, Martin Aepfelbacher, Eric Bibiza-Freiwald, Susanne Pfefferle, and Axel Heinemann
Table
Basic clinical information about and autopsy findings of patients in a longitudinal follow-up cohort and for virus isolation, Department of Legal Medicine, Hamburg, Germany, 2020*
| Patient no. | Age, y/sex | BMI, kg/m2 | Main autopsy finding | Disease duration, d | Postmortem interval, h† | Postmortem SARS-CoV-2 RNA load at admission, Ct‡ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1§ |
54/F |
29.6 |
Pneumonia |
5 |
11.92 |
29.86 |
| 2§ |
66/M |
25.3 |
Pneumonia |
ND |
32.03 |
24.22 |
| 3§ |
63/M |
37.3 |
Pulmonary embolism, pneumonia |
6 |
5.03 |
32.55 |
| 4§ |
70/M |
22.2 |
Pneumonia, bronchitis, respiratory failure |
6 |
7.48 |
18.97 |
| 5§ |
52/M |
38.8 |
Pulmonary embolism |
10 |
5.32 |
ND |
| 6§ |
90/F |
24.9 |
Pneumonia, aspiration |
13 |
19.35 |
29.52 |
| 7§ |
71/M |
ND |
Pneumonia, MODS |
ND |
7.87 |
50 |
| 8§ |
77/M |
33.2 |
Pneumonia |
18 |
5.08 |
50 |
| 9§ |
61/M |
32.3 |
Intracerebral hemorrhage, pneumonia |
ND |
4.37 |
ND |
| 10§ |
76/M |
37.7 |
Pneumonia, MODS, endocarditis, leukemia |
ND |
2.85 |
15.22 |
| 11§,¶ |
59/F |
22.2 |
Pneumonia, multiple myeloma |
18 |
5.67 |
18.55 |
| 12¶ |
83/F |
26.0 |
Pneumonia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma |
25 |
6.83 |
ND |
| 13¶ |
80/M |
28.5 |
Pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, myelofibrosis |
12 |
6.5 |
ND |
| 14¶ |
71/F |
29.0 |
Pneumonia, myelofibrosis |
25 |
12.1 |
ND |
| 15¶ |
84/F |
21.4 |
Pneumonia |
ND |
35.75 |
ND |
| 16¶ | 31/M | 20.6 | Pneumonia, germ cell tumor | ND | 9.08 | ND |
*Ct, cycle threshold; MODS, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome; ND, not determined; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
†Time of death until cooling at 4°C.
‡Negative results are reflected by Ct 50.
§Longitudinal cohort.
¶Virus isolation cohort (S. Pfefferle, unpub. data, https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.10.334458).
Page created: December 16, 2020
Page updated: December 21, 2020
Page reviewed: December 21, 2020
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