Clinical and CT Manifestations of 56 COVID-19 Patients

ABSTRACT

Objective: To analyze the clinical manifestations and lung CT findings of patients infected with the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Methods: The clinical manifestations and lung CT image data of 56 confirmed COVID-19 patients were retrospectively analyzed. These data were collected in the Fourth People’s Hospital of Huai’an from January 23-February 13, 2020. All 56 patients were confirmed cases with positive nucleic acid test. Results: The main clinical manifestations of 56 patients were fever, cough, sputum, and some patients were accompanied by headache, sore throat, nasal congestion and runny nose, fatigue, muscle aches and other symptoms. 42 patients had the symptoms of moderate or low fever, with an average body temperature of 38.0 ±0.7 °C, and 41 patients had the symptoms of dry cough. Of 56 patients with chest CT examination, 50 cases showed ground glass opacity (GGO) in the lungs, 38 cases showed varying degrees of consolidation in the GGO, 49 cases showed the vascular enhancement sign (VES) in the lung lesions, 28 cases showed the pavement stone sign, and 17 cases had the lungs of fiber stripes. Only 1 of the 56 patients had a little pleural effusion, and there was no mediastinal lymphadenopathy. The frequency of ground glass opacity and vascular enhancement sign was the highest, however, there were no significant differences among the three groups in the early stage, progression stage and recovery stage. In the early stage, the occurrence rate of pavement stone signs and air bronchi signs were significantly lower than that of the progression stage and recovery stage. The occurrence rate of fiber stripes was the highest in the recovery period, which was obviously higher than that in the first and second stages. Conclusion: Combined with epidemiological history and clinical symptoms, chest CT abnormalities and routine blood examination can be used as an important reference before nucleic acid detection so as to screen the risky population, which is helpful for early clinical treatment.