Clinical and radiological findings in patients with COVID-19 disease: Case series

Abstract

Background: Lung tomography is used to evaluate the lung parenchyma in diffuse interstitial lung disease. This type of injury can be caused by COVID-19 which emerged in Wuhan China, in December 2019.Typical Computed Tomography (CT) findings in individuals with COVID-19 are ground glass opacities, particularly in the peripheral and lower lobes, and bilateral multiple lobular and subsegmental areas of consolidation.The authors validated the use of baseline chest x-ray severity scores as an independent prognostic indicator of outcomes in COVID-19 patients. Objective: To describe tomographic, radiological, clinical, and laboratory findings associated with worse evolution in COVID-19 patients. Methods: This is a descriptive observational study based on 15 patients infected with COVID-19 in the Cuban Hospital, in Qatar, between March and June 2020, and for whom a CT scan of the chest was performed. The facility was mainly dedicated to treat COVID-19 patients. Poor outcome was defined as patient needing intubation, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission, or death. Variables such as age, gender, nationality, body mass index (BMI), smoking habit, presence of comorbidities, laboratory tests (leukogram (WBC), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), c-reactive protein (CRP), and glycemia), and the severity of radiological and tomographic findings were collected. The quantitative variables were dichotomized according to their values. Results: The outcome of our patients based on the variables collected is shown in. Diabetes mellitus and obesity were common comorbidities associated with poor patient outcome. The evolutive abnormal leukogram, glycemia, C-reactive protein were more abundant in patients with poor outcome. Regarding radiographic variables, 5 affected quadrants was the most observed radiological finding. In the chest tomography the most described was mild severity followed by severe score. Conclusions: This sample is too small to make sound conclusions regarding our observations so a larger sample size study is required to confirm these results.