Early clinical and CT features of COVID-19 and community-acquired pneumonia from a fever observation ward in Ningbo, China.
Singapore Med J
; 63(4): 219-224, 2022 04.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1040168
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
We aimed to compare the early clinical manifestations, laboratory results and chest computed tomography (CT) images of COVID-19 patients with those of other community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients to differentiate CAP from COVID-19 before reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction results are obtained.METHODS:
The clinical and laboratory data and chest CT images of 51 patients were assessed in a fever observation ward for evidence of COVID-19 between January and February 2020.RESULTS:
24 patients had laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, whereas 27 individuals had negative results. No statistical difference in clinical features was found between COVID-19 and CAP patients, except for diarrhoea. There was a significant difference in lymphocyte and eosinophil counts between COVID-19 and CAP patients. In total, 22 (91.67%) COVID-19 patients had bilateral involvement and multiple lesions according to their lung CT images; the left lower lobe (87.50%) and right lower lobe (95.83%) were affected most often, and all lesions were located in the peripheral zones of the lung. The most common CT feature of COVID-19 was ground-glass opacity, found in 95.83% of patients, compared to 66.67% of CAP patients.CONCLUSION:
Diarrhoea, lymphocyte counts, eosinophil counts and CT findings (e.g. ground-glass opacity) could help to distinguish COVID-19 from CAP at an early stage of infection, based on findings from our fever observation ward.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Community-Acquired Infections
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Singapore Med J
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Smedj.2021004
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