Chest Computed Tomographic Imaging Findings and Clinical Criteria of COVID-19 in Zagazig University Hospitals, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Zagazig University faculty of medicine chest department

2 Chest department, faculty of medicine, Zagazig University

3 Clinical Pathology Department, Faculty of Human Medicine, Zagazig University

4 Department of Radiodiagnosis, Faculty of Human Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt.

5 Medical microbiology and immunology, faculty of medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 pneumonia patients have variant prognosis and mortality. A great concern should be given to the clinical and imaging characteristics of those patients, As a result,the aim of current research was to identify clinical, laboratory, and chest computed tomography results in confirmed COVID -19 patients, as well as to compare severe patients to non-severe groups. Methods: In a retrospective cross-sectional analysis, 169 confirmed COVID-19 individuals were enrolled. Computerized medical reports and images were used. Results: The enrolled individuals were classified into asymptomatic: 2 patients (1.2%), mild: 33 patients (19.5%), moderate: 103 patients (60.9%) and severe: 31 patients (18.3%). Fever, cough, shortness of breath were significantly more frequent symptoms in severely infected COVID patients (p=0.001). Moreover, a highly significant decrease in SPO2(p=0.00), a remarkable increase in WBCs (p=0.002), and a significant increase in CRP and Ferritin were detected in that group (p=0.00). The chest “high resolution computed tomography findings were associated with multiple lesions in both lungs and more GGO with consolidation (p < 0.05). Crazy pavement, septal thickening, and subpleural thickening were also significantly presented in severe COVID pneumonia rather than other groups (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Occurrence of clinical factors including aging, cough, fever, dyspnea, comorbidities, hypoxemia, increased WBCs, increased CRP, and ferritin were more prevalent in severe COVID-19 pneumonia. GGO with consolidation and Septal thickening were independent predictors of COVID pneumonia severity findings in HRCT.The use of computed tomography in the diagnosis and assessment of illness severity is crucial.
Keywords: COVID-19, Chest high resolution computed tomography , Ground Glass Opacities (GGO).

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