Died with or Died of? Development and Testing of a SARS CoV-2 Significance Score to Assess the Role of COVID-19 in the Deaths of Affected Patients

Abstract

Since December 2019, a new form of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has spread from China to the whole word, raising concerns regarding Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) endangering public health and life. Over 1.5 million deaths related with COVID-19 have been recorded worldwide, with wide variations among countries affected by the pandemic and continuously growing numbers. The aim of this paper was to provide an overview of the literature cases of deaths involving COVID-19 and to evaluate the application of the COVID-19 Significance Score (CSS) in the classification of SARS CoV-2-related fatalities, comparing it with the Hamburg rating scale. The results obtained allowed us to highlight that CSS used after a complete accurate post-mortem examination, coupled to the retrieval of in vivo data, post-mortem radiology, histology and toxicology, as well as to additional required analyses (e.g., electronic microscopy) is a useful and concise tool in the assessment of the cause of death and the role played by this virus. A shared use of this scale might hopefully lower the inhomogeneities in forensic evaluation of SARS CoV-2-related fatalities.