Imaging findings and changes in discharged moderate novel coronavirus pneumonia patients with positive nucleic acid retest

ABSTRACT

The clinical and imaging data belonging to 52 discharged novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) patients with positive nucleic acid retesting results during the follow-up period were collected from the First People's Hospital, Xiaogan, Hubei Province, China, for analysis. These moderate NCP patients underwent a plain CT scan before the admission, at the time of discharge, and at re-admission due to the positive result of their COVID-19 nucleic acid retesting. The CT signs of these patients were analyzed in this study and a total of 32 (61.54%) patients presented with 123 lesions with patchy fuzzy shadows. In addition, 24 (75%) and 8 (25%) patients out of the 32 patients, had lesions distributed in both lungs and single lung, respectively. It is worth mentioning that the CT manifestations varied in discharged moderate NCP patients whose COVID-19 nucleic acid retest was positive in the follow-up period. Most patients presented with patchy fuzzy shadows and ground-glass opacity (GGO) lesions distributed in the lower lobe of both lungs. The results of the study indicated that some discharged moderate NCP patients with positive COVID-19 nucleic acid retest developed new patchy fuzzy shadows and GGO lesions. Moreover, the recurrence of NCP needs to be verified once patchy fuzzy shadows and GGO lesions appear and are not absorbed during the follow-up period. This study provided a reference for the follow-up NCP evaluation.