Computed Tomography Findings and Short-term follow-up with Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia

Objective

To assess the characteristics of computed tomography (CT) features and changes in CT monitoring in patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP).

Methods

In this retrospective, two-center study, we reviewed the medical records of 57 patients with NCP in CT from January 21 to February 12, 2020. Cases were confirmed by the results of nucleic acid test positive, and were analyzed for demographic, clinical, and CT features.

Results

Of the 57 patients, 31cases were male, and 45.6% were female. The average age was 46.5 ± 15.8 years. Patients had fever (84.2%), cough (49.1%), weak (31.6%), muscle ache (17.5%), shortness of breath (12.3%). The distribution of abnormality was a subpleural lesions in 51 cases, with 96.5% ground-glass opacity (GGO) and 68.4% consolidation. Another observation reveals 45.6% fibrosis, 33.3% lymph node enlargement, 21.1% pleural thickening, 17.5% small nodule, 7.0% white lung, 5.3% emphysema, and 3.5% bronchiectasis. Importantly, the group of men had more septal thickening and air trapping than the female group (p<0.05); Compared with the younger, the elderly had higher of subpleural lesion, interlobular septal thickening and pleural thickening (p<0.05). In the first monitoring, there were 37.3% improvement, 60.8% progress. In the second monitoring, there were 55% improvement, 35% progress. The improvement rate during the third follow-up visit was 100%.

Conclusions

CT features and CT dynamic observation play a vital role in the diagnosis and treatment with NCP. It is conducive to early diagnosis, deepen the knowledge of NCP and accumulate experience.

Key points

Bilateral and subpleural regions on CT are common in patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP), which were more extensive GGOs than consolidation.

At CT, NCP shows GGOs without or with consolidation, which most of the patients appear interlobular interstitium thickening, vascular bundle thickening, air bronchogram, and fibrosis. In patients with fever in close contact with eruption areas of 2019-nCoV, familiarity with the CT findings may help with early diagnosis, early isolation, and management.