Chest MRI of patients with COVID-19: a retrospective case study

During the pandemic of COVID-19, computed tomography showed its effectiveness in diagnosis of coronavirus infection. However, ionizing radiation during CT studies causes concern for patients who require dynamic observation, as well as for examination of children and young people. For this retrospective study, we included 15 suspected for COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized in April 2020, Russia. There were 4 adults with positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for COVID-19. All patients underwent MRI examinations using MR-LUND PROTOCOL: Single-shot Fast Spin Echo (SSFSE), LAVA 3D and IDEAL 3D, EPI diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and Fast Spin Echo (FSE) T2WI without using respiratory or any other trigger. 3 patients also had CT scan performed. In 5 (33,3%) patients, detected lesioins were visualized on T2WI and DWI simultaneously. At the same time, 4 (26.7%) patients revealed lung tissue changes only on T2WI (P(McNemar)= 0,125, OR= 0,00 (95%), kappa=0,500). Pulmonary changes on MRI were also analyzed depending on their localization. In those patients who had CT scan, the changes were comparable to MRI. MRI of the lungs can detect features of viral pneumonia and assess severity of lung damage. The method can be used to diagnose COVID-19. These data may be applicable for interpreting other studies, such as thoracic spine MRI, detecting signs of viral pneumonia of asymptomatic patients. The current study was limited by a small sample size and absence of chest CT scans of all patients.