Background Although the lung is seen as the main target organ affected by SARS-CoV-2, other organs are also damaged. Aim We aimed to determine the extrapulmonary findings of autopsies performed on cases with positive results with postmortem polymerase chain reaction test. Methods Pathological changes in extrapulmonary organs were examined with light microscopy. Results Heart, liver, spleen, kidney, pancreas, and central nervous system samples of these cases were evaluated. About 80% of the cases were men, and 20% were women. In the examination of heart, 28 of the cases had scar, 14 had acute myocardial infarction, 6 had acute and previous myocardial infarction findings, 2 had myocarditis, and 4 had interstitial mononuclear inflammatory cell infiltration. In the examination of the liver, portal inflammation was observed in 84 of the cases, steatosis in 54, centrilobular necrosis in 9, and capillary endotheliitis in the portal area in 7 of them. In the evaluation of the kidney, 37 cases had chronic pyelonephritis, 36 had tubular damage, 15 had tubulointerstitial necrosis, 16 had subcapsular microhemorrhage, 10 had capillary endothelitis, and 9 had a microvascular fibrin trombosis in their glomerular capillaries. In the central nervous system, 8 cases had infarction and liquefaction, 56 had perivascular petechial hemorrhage, 54 had acute hypoxic ischemic change, 3 had parenchymal microhemorrhage, and 52 had capillary endotheliitis. Conclusion Autopsies play an important role in systematically examining the damage caused by the virus in all organs in order to elucidate the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection and contribute to the clinical management of infected patients.

Introduction: Mediastinitis after cardiac surgery is a rare complication, but with high morbidity and mortality. Aim: To determine its risk factors and to investigate the efficacy of vacuum-assisted closure (VAC). Material and methods: Nine thousand one hundred sixty cases of patients who underwent cardiac surgery during 2010-2017 were reviewed retrospectively. One hundred and twenty-seven patients, the case group, were treated by VAC. Three hundred cases with no diagnosis of mediastinitis were selected as the control group. Both groups' clinical and demographic characteristics, preoperative variables, and postoperative follow-up parameters were compared. Factors affecting treatment were analyzed. Results: We found that the presence of diabetes mellitus, bilateral internal thoracic artery and intra-aortic balloon pump usage are independent risk factors for the development of mediastinitis (p < 0.05). It was found that 74% of tissue cultures were positive and the most common detected organism was Staphylococcus. It was found that many perioperative parameters had a significant effect on the duration of treatment (p < 0.05). However, regression analysis revealed that bacterial growth was the only independent variable in prolonging the treatment period. Conclusions: We believe that the establishment of perioperative blood glucose regulation, patient selection to use bilateral internal thoracic artery grafts, and maximum attention to sepsis and antisepsis rules in patients who need mechanical support devices such as intra-aortic balloon pump, will significantly reduce the development of mediastinitis. Since we could not find an independent risk factor for the duration of VAC treatment other than culture growth, we think that VAC therapy is successful and safe in the treatment of mediastinitis and should be used more widely.

Volatile substance addiction and toxic gas inhalation are now an important health problem. The pleasure-based inhalation of butane gas, also known as lighter refill gas, is especially prevalent among children and young people. The most important reasons for this situation are that they are cheap and easy to obtain and lack of legal supervision. The exhaled gas is absorbed through the alveolar surface and rapidly enters the bloodstream and leads to clinical signs. It can cause dizziness, nausea, vomiting, confusion, hallucinations, and euphoria in the acute phase. In severe cases, bronchospasm, hypoxia, ventricular arrhythmia, cardiopulmonary arrest, and death can occur. Our case is one of the rare cases in the literature that was diagnosed by postmortem histopathological examination. Our case is a 15-year-old girl who was found in front of a tobacco product store. On gross examination, there was a hemorrhagic area under the aortic valve that continued to interventricular septum. There was no coronary artery lesion. Histopathological examination revealed hypereosinophilia and contraction band necrosis in myocardial fibers, which was more intense in papillary muscle. Immunohistochemical studies also supported early myocardial ischemic changes. Upon toxicological examination, butane gas was detected in lung and blood samples.

The aim of this study is to define epidemiologic differences and the most common pathologies that cause nontraumatic sudden, natural death in people in the age group of 18-35 years. Identifying causes of sudden death in this age group is important for determining approaches for prevention. MethodsWe performed a descriptive statistical methodology, analysis, and interpretation using demographic and autopsy data of sudden deaths. A total of 4034 autopsies were reviewed and 66 cases of sudden death were included in this study. ResultsWe identified 58 (87.9%) subjects in whom the adjudicated cause of death was of potential cardiac etiology. The most common cause of sudden young adult death was ischemic heart disease associated with the atherosclerotic coronary artery (n=24, 36.3%), followed by ischemic heart disease associated with nonatherosclerotic coronary artery disease and dissecting aortic aneurysm. ConclusionWe put forth that the main cause of sudden young adult death was cardiac (87.9%) in origin. Of these cardiac causes, ischemic etiology associated with atherosclerosis was the main reason for sudden young adult deaths. In order to reduce the incidence of sudden young adult deaths, major efforts should be directed to prevent atherosclerosis in this age group.

Embolism of cerebral tissue to pulmonary circulation is a rare entity. It can be occur because of penetrating or closed head trauma at any age or during difficult vaginal deliveries at any age. We present a case of cerebral tissue pulmonary embolization after severe head trauma in a male adult. The autopsy revealed multiple skull fractures, subdural hematoma, subarachnoid hemorrhages, and contusions. Microscopically, we observed cerebral tissue inside the branches of the pulmonary arteries. Embolism of cerebral tissue to the pulmonary circulation is a rare condition. It should always be kept in mind in sudden unexpected deaths during delivery and head trauma cases at any age.

Aim:The aim of this paper is to survey the COVID-19 research articles in Q1 ranked high SJR index journals according to the SCImago journal rank indicator. Material and Method:The study was carried out on the website named "https://www.scimagojr.com". The search was conducted by selecting the criteria "medicine", "pathology and forensic medicine", "all regions/countries", "journals", and the "2020" as the year. Only 50 scientific journals met these criteria. COVID-19-related and unrelated research articles published in these journals were manually scanned. Review articles, book reviews, conferences, commentaries, case reports, mini reviews, short communications, letters to the editor were not included in the study. COVID-19 related research articles were divided into groups in terms of antemortem and postmortem type of the study by reviewing the abstract of the studies and also grouped according to the country of first author and countries of all authors. Results: A total of 3906 research articles published in 50 journals with Q1 SJR index over 0.887 were investigated. Of these 3906 research articles, 40 of them were related to COVID-19. 31 of these 40 COVID-19 related research articles were antemortem and 9 were postmortem studies. Among these 40 COVID-19 related scientific articles, the first author of publications belonged to 12 countries. United States, Australia, China, and Italy were found to be the most productive countries for published research articles on COVID-19 in selected high SJR index journals. The United States was the country with the highest number of first authors with 15 articles. China was the country with the highest number of multinational author list research articles. Conclusion:We believe that the number and content of studies conducted in these high-quality scientific journals on COVID-19 make important contributions and understanding in the fields of disease transmission, disease prevention, course and severity of symptoms, pathophysiology, molecular characteristics, and treatment approach processes.

It is widely accepted that gastric neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) develop due to enterochromaffin-like (ECL) cell proliferation following exposure to hypergastrinemia, which causes hyperplastic-dysplastic-neoplastic changes. Here we describe the case of a 46-year-old female patient diagnosed with metastatic NETs by liver biopsy and evaluated at an external center. At our hospital, nodular structures extending from the cardia to the antrum were observed by gastroscopy, considered the primary tumor focus. Histopathological examination revealed a trabecular-insular pattern, with microNETs consisting of monotone cells with round-oval nuclei and surrounding neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia foci and fundic gland polyps. The patient had a history of regular proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use for 10 years and a serum gastrin of 9240 pg/mL. A 3-cm metastatic lesion in the left lobe of the liver was observed in whole-body imaging with octreotide. By gastrectomy, we observed a large number of nodular lesions in the corpus-antrum and a 3-cm diameter lesion in the hepatectomy material. Histopathological examination revealed NETs in multiple foci with submucosal invasion in the stomach. The Ki-67 proliferative index was 3%. Metastatic tumors of similar morphology were found in the liver and three of the greater curvature lymph nodes. We made a diagnosis of multiple gastric NETs (Grade 2). In Type I gastric NETs, the neuroendocrine cell proliferation spectrum up to NET is observed as a result of hypergastrinemia due to atrophic gastritis. Also, in experimental studies, prolonged hypergastrinemia has been reported to cause ECL cell neoplasms in animals treated with PPIs. Although our case could be accepted as Type 1 NET, the possibility of developing NET secondary to long-term PPI use should also be considered.

Introduction: Pathological diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction can be difficult if death from ischemic injury has occurred within a short period of time. In this study, we aimed to determine the role of immunohistochemical markers in the diagnosis of early myocardial infarction.Methods: The myocardium samples of 20 cases whose autopsies were performed at the Morgue Department of the Council of Forensic Medicine were evaluated. Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stained slides and fibronectin, CD59, myoglobulin, troponin T, desmin, cathepsin S stained slides of 20 cases diagnosed with early myocardial infarction were retrospectively re-examined. The diagnosis of myocardial infarction was analyzed in two groups: Group 1: first eight hours, Group 2: 8-24 hours. The immunohistochemical staining patterns in these two groups were compared.Results: Of the cases, 55% (n=11) had myocardial infarction consistent with the first eight hours, 45% (n=9) 8-24 hours with light microscopic examination. With fibronectin, 50% (n=10) of the cases showed Grade 1 staining, 5% (n=1) Grade 2, 15% (n=6) Grade 3 staining. The slides of three cases could not be reached. With CD59, 10% (n=2) of the cases showed Grade 1, 10% (n=2) Grade 2, 80% (n=16) Grade 3 staining. With troponin T, 50% (n=10) of the cases showed Grade 1, 45% (n=9) Grade 2, 5% (n=1) Grade 3 depletion. With cathepsin S, 10% (n=2) of the cases showed Grade 1 and 80% (n=16) Grade 3 depletion. The slides of two cases could not be reached. With desmin, 75% (n=15) had Grade 1 and 25% (n=5) Grade 2 depletion. Grade 3 depletion with myoglobulin was observed in all cases. Conclusion:The diagnosis of early myocardial infarction, which may pose a problem for the forensic pathologist, may become easier with immunohistochemical methods. In cases where morphological findings are insufficient, it is more useful for diagnosis to be applied as a panel.