CT Scan Findings in Patients with COVID-19

Background and purpose: Lung involvement is highly important in patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and CT scan plays a major role in diagnosis and treatment of patients. This study investigated a large sample size of COVID-19 patients who performed CT scan. Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done using the CT scan findings of all suspected, probable, and definite patients of COVID-19 attending Sari Shafa Hospital, Iran during March and April 2020. The Siemens Somatom Emotion 16-slice CT scanner was used. CT scan was performed by HRCT method only in axial sections without contrast material and with 2 mm thickness sections. Data, including demographic information and HRCT findings were collected from the picture archiving and communication system (PACS). Results: From 3132 patients, 1883 (60.1%) were found with no positive results. Among those with lung involvement, 1138 (36.4%) had highly suggestive symptoms of COVID-19 and 111 (3.5%) had inconsistent symptoms. Bilateral, peripheral, and diffuse lung involvement were seen in 79.9%, 53.3%, and 87.6%, respectively. Patchy morphology was detected in 64.9%. Ground-glass opacities were seen in 96.7% and pleural effusion was observed in 6.4%. The highest frequency involvement was in the lower right lobe (82%) and 697 patients with positive findings had less than 25% lung involvement. Conclusion: The present study showed ground-glass opacity as the most common finding of the CT scan in patients with COVID-19 and bilateral lung involvement that occurred mainly in lower lobes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences (JMUMS) is the property of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)