CT Scan Findings in Patients with COVID-19

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.

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).

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.

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.