An Autopsy Report of a Case with Cerebral Infarction Complicated by Coronavirus Disease 2019 Infection.

ABSTRACT

We herein report a case of cerebral infarct in a patient with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection who died of aspiration pneumonia. The postmortem examination of the brain revealed embolic infarct with negative findings on quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) as well as immunohistochemistry to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The systemic examination only revealed low copy numbers of SARS-CoV-2 in the bronchus. This is the first and so far only autopsy case of COVID-19 infection with pathologic and virologic findings of the postmortem brain in Japan.