Tag Archives: Autopsies

October 2020—Autopsies conducted at University Medical Center in New Orleans on 22 patients who died from SARS-CoV-2 infection found not the expected typical inflammation of the heart muscle associated with myocarditis but instead scattered individual myocyte necrosis.

Published in June: Autopsies show many faces of COVID-19 Sudden” and “global” are descriptors that seldom appear in tandem, especially in relation to disease epidemiology. But they both fit the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left the health care world reeling. “COVID-19 has infected the entire planet pretty much all at once,” says Alex K. Williamson, MD. Read more.

Published in July: Reading COVID-19’s signature: lung tissue injury Alain Charles Borczuk, MD, began his practice of pathology as a resident 28 years ago and has spent quite a bit of his career doing autopsies. But it is this year, during the pandemic, that he’s finding some of the best applications of his autopsy work as he seeks to understand the lung injury patterns in SARS CoV-2, or COVID-19 patients. Read more.

May 2020—To combat the spread of COVID-19, Louisiana’s governor in late March issued an order directing state residents to limit their excursions outside.

September 2018—Quality management, communication, and consent are among the issues addressed in new and revised requirements in the autopsy pathology section of the latest edition of the CAP accreditation program anatomic pathology checklist.

May 2017—Autopsy Performance & Reporting is a new book from CAP Press, released in April. The editor, Kim A. Collins, MD, and her 43 contributors wrote 40 chapters on facility design, safety, high-risk cases, the oral cavity, the placenta, the pediatric autopsy, special studies of the heart and lungs, postmortem microbiologic testing, photomicrography, and much more. “I know of no other autopsy book like this on the market,” Dr. Collins tells CAP TODAY.

November 2014—Pathology resident Beth Ellen Frost, DO, has at times taken an uncommon step to put family members at ease when they are asked to consent, or have consented, to an autopsy for a loved one: She’s providing her cell phone number. Simple but purposeful, and it’s one part of a new initiative to improve the University of Kentucky HealthCare system’s autopsy process, which has other pathology staff handing out numbers too.

March 2014—Boosters of so-called virtual autopsy say it has the potential to revolutionize the practice of forensic pathology and could help increase the share of U.S. deaths subject to medical autopsy. The technique involves the use of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and three-dimensional surface scanning technology to help resolve tricky forensic questions such as whether a woman was killed with a hammer or a bicycle wrench.