Laboratory and clinical characteristics of the patients
Seven deceased COVID-19 patients (two females) were included in this
postmortem biopsy study. The median age was 62 years (range: 39–93
years). All patients had comorbid chronic medical conditions.
Hypertension was the most common comorbidity and was present in all
patients, followed by diabetes mellitus in five out of the seven
patients. One patient died in the ward, and the remaining patients died
in the ICU. As part of the national guideline issued by the Ministry of
Health of Turkey, all patients were treated with the following drug
protocol: azithromycin + hydroxychloroquine + favipiravir. Depending on
the severity of the disease and at the caring physician’s discretion,
some patients were treated with tocilizumab and/or convalescent plasma
donated by COVID-19 survivors. Patients who were connected to a
mechanical ventilator in the ICU were administered 1 mg/kg body weight
of methylprednisolone. Patients’ demographic and clinical
characteristics are shown in Table 1 .