ABSTRACT
The first wave of COVID 19 hit India in August 2020 lasted till October 2020 and second wave in February 2021 and lasted still May 2021. During this time multiple HRCT were done. Most of the HRCT done were demanded by the patients without consulting the health care provider. At our center, we analyzed the HRCT done on patient's demand retrospectively. We selected the patients who were more than 50 years old and no history of any chronic respiratory illness. Out of 200 HRCT which were analyzed 50, had features other than COVID pneumonia. 23 had features suggestive of sequalae to tuberculosis, 11 had features of interstitial lung disease, 12 had features of neoplasm,4 had features of active tuberculosis. Hence it was concluded, HRCT during COVID waves not only helped in grading the lung involvement but also in diagnosing other disease which would have not been diagnosed otherwise. Early detection of neoplasm was one of the most important benefits for the same. We are under process of analyzing more HRCT been done at other centers to get a conclusive data. Since in India, there is lung cancer screening program, these observations might help in initiating the same.
ABSTRACT
The second wave of COVID 19 started in India in the month of February 2021 lasted till June 2021. The second wave of COVID 19 was devastating in India. There were many fatalities. But the patient who recovered of COVID pneumonia also had many pulmonary complications, pulmonary infections being the most common. The use of steroids and immunosuppressive agents were considered to be one the causative factors. At our center, we did retrospective analysis of patients who were admitted with pulmonary infections in month of June and July 2021 and had history of COVID during second wave. There were in total 98 patients. The sputum and bronchial wash analysis were done for these patients. Out of 98 patients, 38 diagnosed to have tuberculosis, 18 mucormycosis, 10 aspergillosis, 22 bacterial infection (Pseudomonas and klebsiella), 2 non tubercular mycobacteria, 2 nocardiosis, 6 had mixed infections (2 NTM and Klebsiella, 3 TB with Aspergillosis and 1 Aspergillosis with mucor). Thus, it was concluded, that post covid status predisposed to pulmonary infections with not only common organism like Tuberculosis (being endemic in India) but also rare organism like mucor, nocardia, NTM. Though most of the patients received steroids and immunosuppressive therapy, 22 patients had mild COVID and didn't receive any steroids or immunosuppressive therapy. Thus, implying that steroids and immunosuppressive therapy are not the only cause of increased incidence of pulmonary infections. More such observations from different centers are required for confirmation of the observations.