CT-scan findings of COVID-19 pneumonia based on the time elapsed from the beginning of symptoms to the CT imaging evaluation: a descriptive study in Iran

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was initially detected in Wuhan city, China. Chest CT features of COVID-19 pneumonia have been investigated mostly in China, and there is very little information available on the radiological findings occurring in other populations. In this study, we aimed to describe the characteristics of chest CT findings in confirmed cases of COVID-19 pneumonia in an Iranian population, based on a time classification.Methods: Eighty-nine patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, confirmed by a real-time RT-PCR test, who were admitted to non-ICU wards and underwent a chest CT scan were retrospectively enrolled. Descriptive evaluation of radiologic findings was performed using a classification based on the time interval between the initiation of the symptoms and chest CT-scan.Results: The median age of patients was 58.0 years, and the median time interval from the onset of symptoms to CT scan evaluation was 7 days. Most patients had bilateral (94.4%) and multifocal (91.0%) lung involvement with peripheral distribution (60.7%). Also, most patients showed involvement of all five lobes (77.5%). Ground-glass opacities (GGO) (84.3%), and mixed GGO with consolidation (80.9%) were the most common identified patterns. We also found that as the time interval between symptoms and CT scan evaluation increased, the predominant pattern changed from GGO to mixed pattern and then to elongated-containing and band-like-opacities-containing pattern; on the other hand, the percentage of lung involvement increased.Conclusions: Bilateral multifocal GGO, and mixed GGO with consolidation were the most common patterns of COVID-19 pneumonia in our study. However, these patterns might change according to the time interval from symptoms.

Correlation of clinical, laboratory, and short‐term outcomes of immunocompromised and immunocompetent COVID‐19 patients with semi‐quantitative chest CT score findings: A case‐control study

“…5 Confirming our Outcomes findings, a previous descriptive study among the general population also showed that GGO and mixed GGO with consolidation were the most common patterns among COVID-19 patients. 15 Our results showed immunocompromised patients generally had less severe pulmonary involvement compared to immunocompetent patients, which might confirm the previous studies suggesting the protective effects of immunosuppression on immunocompromised COVID-19 patients by preventing the development of cytokine storm and its consequences 16 ; Which was previously described how rheumatologic patients might benefit from immunosuppressive therapy. 17 While clinical data among immunocompromised COVID-19 patients are scarce, a previous study on kidney transplant patients with pneumonia suggested the low rate of the severe type of disease among kidney transplant recipients might be due to some levels of immunosuppression.…”

Predictors of the chest CT score in COVID-19 patients: a cross-sectional study

“…Computed tomography (CT) is the most sensitive tool for diagnosing COVID-19, and several radiological patterns are seen in different phases of disease [ 13 , 14 ]. Among different patterns of chest CT scan, ground-glass opacities (GGO) and mixed GGO with consolidation is reported as the most common patterns in COVID-19 patients [ 15 ]. Although definite diagnosis relies on real-time reverse-transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) [ 16 ], chest CT is a valuable modality to measure the extent of lung involvement and propose a treatment plan.…”

Outlook of various diagnostics and nanodiagnostic techniques for COVID-19

“…Patients with ground-glass opacity (GGO) have twice the chance of COVID-19 infection ( Abdollahi et al, 2021 ). In another study, CT scans of COVID-19 patients showed bilateral multifocal GGO and mixed GGO and consolidation ( Jafari et al, 2020 ). Other typical findings include GGO, consolidation, peripheral reticulation, and crazy-paving patterns ( Martínez Chamorro et al, 2021 ).…”