THE APPLICATION OF LUNG MRI IN CASES OF COVID-19 INFECTION

Abstract

A new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), which epidemic affected almost all states at the beginning of 2020, is also diagnosed radiologically, including computed tomography (CT), which is considered to be the gold standard for this. The lack of awareness among doctors and patients in a number of regions of Russia about the radiology use, need and appropriateness in this infection has led to unreasonable, overly frequent prescribing of chest CT by clinicians, as well as an increase in the chest CT ordering at the urgent request of the patients themselves, despite attempts of radiologists to convince those and others that, most often, this technique is not needed, as not affecting the observation and treatment strategy. The overload of CT units resulting from this has led to its limited availability, which, in addition, can also occur when CT devices get out of order. This publication is dedicated to our experience with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the diagnosis of viral pneumonia. Changes detected on MRI are similar to those visible on CT, it is possible to detect a sign of «ground glass opacity», consolidations, reverse halo sign, fluid in the pleural cavity, air bronchography with an accuracy not less than that of CT, especially if the size of the pathological changes exceeds 1 cm. In addition, MRI allows the differential diagnosis of viral pneumonia and other clinical situations able to simulate it, such as a bron chogenic tumors with retro obstructive pneumonitis, exudative pleurisy, bacterial pneumonia, and bacterial infection inside the viral pneumonia. Given the inaccessibility of CT and/or radiation exposure conserns, MRI can serve as a fairly reliable alternative method for viral pneumonia and other pathological conditions with a nonspecific clinical picture radiological diagnosis and differential diagnosis, provided that anti-epidemic measures are observed and there are no absolute contraindications for MRI.