Abstract
BackgroundChest CT scan and chest x-rays show characteristic radiographic findings in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Chest x-ray can be used in diagnosis and follow up in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. The study aims at describing the chest x-ray findings and temporal radiographic changes in COVID-19 patients.MethodsFrom March 15 to April 20, 2020 patients with positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for COVID-19 were retrospectively studied. Patients’ demographics, clinical characteristics, and chest x-ray findings were reported. Radiographic findings were correlated with the course of the illness and patients’ symptoms.ResultsA total of 88 patients (50 (56.8%) females and 38 (43.2%) males) were admitted to the hospital with confirmed COVID-19. Their age ranged from 3 to 80 years (35.2 ± 18.2 years). 48/88 (45%) were symptomatic, only 13/88 (45.5%) showed abnormal chest x-ray findings. A total of 190 chest x-rays were obtained for the 88 patients with a total of 59/190 (31%) abnormal chest x-rays. The most common finding on chest x-rays was peripheral ground glass opacities (GGO) affecting the lower lobes. In the course of illness, the GGO progressed into consolidations peaking around 6–11 days (GGO 70%, consolidations 30%). The consolidations regressed into GGO towards the later phase of the illness at 12–17 days (GGO 80%, consolidations 10%). There was increase in the frequency of normal chest x-rays from 9% at days 6–11 up to 33% after 18 days indicating a healing phase. The majority (12/13, 92.3%) of patients with abnormal chest x-rays were symptomatic (P = 0.005).ConclusionAlmost half of patients with COVID-19 have abnormal chest x-ray findings with peripheral GGO affecting the lower lobes being the most common finding. Chest x-ray can be used in diagnosis and follow up in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.
Highlights
Chest CT scan and chest x-rays show characteristic radiographic findings in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia
This study aimed to report the chest x-ray findings in 88 patients with confirmed COVID-19 and to describe the temporal changes of the chest radiological findings throughout the disease course
Study design This is a retrospective study of laboratory confirmed COVID-19 patients who were admitted to the isolation wards in a tertiary teaching hospital between March 15 and April 20, 2020
Summary
Chest CT scan and chest x-rays show characteristic radiographic findings in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Chest x-ray can be used in diagnosis and follow up in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. The study aims at describing the chest x-ray findings and temporal radiographic changes in COVID-19 patients. An outbreak of severe cases of pneumonia from an unidentified origin emerged in Wuhan, China in December 31, 2019. The illness rapidly spread in China and in many other countries. Coronaviruses are enveloped, positive-sense, single strand, non-segmented, and ribonucleic acid viruses that belong to the coronaviridae family [3]. The viruses have characteristic morphology under the electron microscope with presence of viral spike peplomers arising from the viral envelope giving a crown appearance [4]. The coronaviruses are widely distributed among humans
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