Abstract
China was the epicenter for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which quickly spread to other Asian countries and later to Western countries; subsequently, COVID-19 was categorized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Diagnosis primarily depends on viral detection in respiratory samples; however, available kits are limited, lack high sensitivity, and have a long turnaround time for providing results. In this scenario, computed tomography has emerged as an efficient and available high-sensitivity method, allowing radiologists to readily recognize findings related to COVID-19. The objective of this article is to demonstrate the main tomographic findings in symptomatic respiratory patients with COVID-19 to assist medical professionals during this critical moment.
Highlights
The respiratory infection caused by the novel coronavirus strain SARS-CoV-2, which was first detected in the city of Wuhan (Hubei province, China) in December 2019, was reported as a “pneumonia of unknown etiology”
The tomographic findings of pneumonia caused by COVID-19 are nonspecific and similar to those induced by other viral infections, such as influenza, COVID19 triggers pneumonia, drug-induced pneumonitis, and connective tissue diseases[3]
Recent studies have suggested that chest Computed tomography (CT) has greater sensitivity but low specificity when compared to reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for the diagnosis of COVID-19(1,8,30,31; a diagnostic confirmation with the viral test is necessary for etiological diagnosis, even with typical radiological findings[4]
Summary
The respiratory infection caused by the novel coronavirus strain SARS-CoV-2, which was first detected in the city of Wuhan (Hubei province, China) in December 2019, was reported as a “pneumonia of unknown etiology”. Chest radiography has limited efficiency due to its low sensitivity and specificity, demonstrating normal or ambiguous findings in most initial cases (Figure 1); as such, clinicians and radiologists need to be aware of these limitations[4,9] It can be used at bedside and in field hospitals. The objective of this study was to present the most significant imaging results obtained from symptomatic respiratory patients with COVID-19 using a multidetector CT (MDCT) These findings were described according to the Brazilian consensus on the terminology of key descriptors and standards[11]. Farias LPG et al / Thoracic tomographic changes in patients with COVID-19 and crazy-paving areas These findings usually peak around the 10th day and slowly regress. Literature describes a variable incidence of groundglass opacities, it is considered an usual finding, ranging between 86% and 100% in some studies[15,18,19]
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