Pulmonary Megakaryocytes in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Roles in Thrombi and Fibrosis
Jecko Thachil, Ton Lisman
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has already claimed many lives and continues to do so in different parts of the world. Autopsy reports of patients who succumbed to this viral infection have been published despite concerns about health care professional safety. One of the unusual findings in COVID-19 lung autopsy reports is the increase in pulmonary megakaryocytes. Although the presence of megakaryocytes in the lungs is a well-established concept in the medical literature, it is still not widely accepted in the clinical fraternity. In this article, we discuss the role of lung megakaryocytes in relation to the clinicopathological findings in COVID-19 and discuss how this may impact on our understanding of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), pulmonary thrombi, and lung fibrosis, in general.