Spectrum of computed tomography manifestations post COVID

Somanth Samineni *, Jenson Isac John and Praveen Kumar John

Department of Radiodiagnosis, A J institute of medical sciences, Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
 
Research Article
International Journal of Frontiers in Medicine and Surgery Research, 2023, 03(02), 001–008.
Article DOI: 10.53294/ijfmsr.2023.3.2.0063
Publication history: 
Received on 12 May 2023; revised on 27 June 2023; accepted on 29 June 2023
 
Abstract: 
Introduction: Chest CT is an important diagnostic, prognostic and follow up technique used for COVID 19 infections. It can detect ground glass opacities (GGO) as early as 5th day following symptoms with maximum CT findings at around 10 days of symptoms. Initially detected as unilateral lesions, it acutely progresses bilaterally. Hence, in this study, we evaluated the CT findings in COVID 19 illness, and correlated the same with severity.
Methodology: It is a hospital based ambispective cross-sectional study conducted among 1544 patients attending the Department of Radio-diagnosis with symptomatic COVID-19 infections. Sociodemographic characteristics were taken, followed by history and HRCT imaging. This was followed by reporting of CT imaging with CO-RADS staging and CT severity scoring.
Results: The most common lesions noted were ground glass opacities (87.7%), consolidation (44.2%), hilar/mediastinal lymphadenopathy (20.1%), reticular opacities (14.3%), septal thickening (9.1%), pleural effusion (4.5%), bronchiectasis (4.5%), emphysematous changes (1.3%), pleural thickening (2, 1.6%) and reticulonodular opacities (0.6%).
Conclusion: Bilateral, multifocal, and peripheral distribution of lesions are common in HRCT of symptomatic COVID cases. GGO is the most common lesion noted.
 
Keywords: 
HRCT; COVID 19; Ground glass opacity; Distribution; CT severity score
 
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