High Resolution Computed Tomography Manifestations in Covid-19 Suspected and Diagnosed Patients

ABSTRACT

Aim: To study the High Resolution Computed Tomography manifestations in the evaluation of COVID-19 suspected and diagnosed patients and study its correlation in respect to CT severity scoring with symptomology, comorbidities, lab parameters and oxygen requirement in the study group. Method(s) This was a descriptive study conducted between August 2020 to October 2022 at Dr D.Y. Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Pune after taking necessary approval by the institutional scientific and ethics committee. 500 patients meeting the inclusion criteria for the study were included in the study after taking a written informed consent from all the patients. Result(s) A total of 500 study participants were included;of them 27% (n=133) were categorized as mild on the basis of CT severity score, 51% (n=257) were categorized as moderate and 78 participants (15.6%) were categorized as severe. Thirty two (6.4%) patients who were suspected for having COVID-19 infection and being diagnosed as COVID-19 positive on RTPCR tests showed normal HRCT scans. Our study group included 311 male and 189 female patients. Ground glass opacities were the. Most common typical CT chest manifestation in our study group seen in all of severe patients followed by 97.3% in moderate groups, 94.7% in mild group. Consolidation was seen in 55.1% of severe patients followed by 31.9% in moderate disease groups, 15.8% in mild group. Bilateral involvement of lung parenchyma on HRCT was more common and was seen to affect 84.8% (n=429) of total population there was a lower lobe preponderance in early and mild disease with the right lower lobe being the most common lobe being affected followed by the left lower lobe. In our study group, atypical findings of COVID 19 disease on HRCT were seen in 24 % (n=120) of total population. In our study groups, among the atypical findings pleural effusion is the most common atypical finding which was seen in 10.2% (n=51) of total study population followed by mediastinal lymphadenopathy which was seen in 9.2% (n=46) of total study population. The mean number of days since symptoms was highest for patients in severe disease category (7.3 days) followed by moderate group (5.3 days) and mild group (3.0 days). In our study oxygenation support was required for 64.1% of patients in severe group followed by 39.3% in moderate group and 6.8% in mild group. Conclusion(s) COVID 19 disease has had a significant negative impact on the healthcare system all across the world and CT imaging plays an important role in assessing disease severity and progression. Our study supports the use of HRCT in patients with COVID-19 infection, which could be used as a rapid and an effective gatekeeper to rule-out patients with a low likelihood of disease. Copyright © 2023 Ubiquity Press. All rights reserved.