Significance of Chest Computed Tomography Scan Findings at Time of Diagnosis in Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia

Background and objectives: Many published reports demonstrated the cardinal hallmark of COVID-19 infection, such as bilateral ground glass opacities (GGO) with or without consolidation in posterior and peripheral lungs fields. Various CT algorithms including CT scoring system were used to assess qua...

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Main Authors: Rajaa Suhail Najim, Ahmed Diaa Abdulwahab, Dina Nasih Tawfeeq
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2022-01-01
Series:Indian Journal of Medical Specialities
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.lww.com/10.4103/injms.injms_101_21
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author Rajaa Suhail Najim
Ahmed Diaa Abdulwahab
Dina Nasih Tawfeeq
author_facet Rajaa Suhail Najim
Ahmed Diaa Abdulwahab
Dina Nasih Tawfeeq
author_sort Rajaa Suhail Najim
collection DOAJ
description Background and objectives: Many published reports demonstrated the cardinal hallmark of COVID-19 infection, such as bilateral ground glass opacities (GGO) with or without consolidation in posterior and peripheral lungs fields. Various CT algorithms including CT scoring system were used to assess quantitively and qualitatively the severity of COVID-19 pneumonia. The aim of this study was to summarize the significance of certain radiological features in evaluating Covid-19 pneumonia severity in Iraqi patients. Materials and methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted in Erbil tertiary hospitals in Iraq from June 2020, until August 2020. Review of chest CT scan for 132 patients was done and the main chest CT manifestations of patients with COVID-19 infection was reported. Then, CT scoring system was implicated in a quantitative comparison with radiological findings observed in chest CT examinations of patients having different disease severity at time of diagnosis. Results: The mean age of study sample was 51.08 ±14.2 years. The typical CT findings were consistent with mainly GGOs (78.8%) followed by consolidation. Atypical CT patterns according to previous reports were also observed including tree in bud, crazy paving, bronchiectasis, round organizing pneumonia, pulmonary nodules, mediastinal lymphadenopathy, cavitation and pleural thickening. Lung involvement was significantly more in the lower lobes than upper lobes. CT severity score was significantly higher in the lower lobes as well. Chest CT severity score (CT-SS) was significantly higher in cases with most common pathological lung changes (p < 0.001) except for tree in bud, crazy paving and cavitation. Conclusion: CT-SS is an essential examination tool in the diagnosis, disease severity evaluation and lobar extension of COVID-19 infection. High CT-SS are significantly associated with certain chest CT findings like GGOs, consolidation, bronchiectasis and interlobular septa thickening which reflects the seriousness of such CT findings in COVID-19 at time of diagnosis.
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spelling doaj-art-ef19478b8b7a4bbcb13f72e08b8ad3ee2025-08-25T08:38:13ZengWolters Kluwer Medknow PublicationsIndian Journal of Medical Specialities0976-28840976-28922022-01-0113191610.4103/injms.injms_101_21Significance of Chest Computed Tomography Scan Findings at Time of Diagnosis in Patients with COVID-19 PneumoniaRajaa Suhail NajimAhmed Diaa AbdulwahabDina Nasih TawfeeqBackground and objectives: Many published reports demonstrated the cardinal hallmark of COVID-19 infection, such as bilateral ground glass opacities (GGO) with or without consolidation in posterior and peripheral lungs fields. Various CT algorithms including CT scoring system were used to assess quantitively and qualitatively the severity of COVID-19 pneumonia. The aim of this study was to summarize the significance of certain radiological features in evaluating Covid-19 pneumonia severity in Iraqi patients. Materials and methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted in Erbil tertiary hospitals in Iraq from June 2020, until August 2020. Review of chest CT scan for 132 patients was done and the main chest CT manifestations of patients with COVID-19 infection was reported. Then, CT scoring system was implicated in a quantitative comparison with radiological findings observed in chest CT examinations of patients having different disease severity at time of diagnosis. Results: The mean age of study sample was 51.08 ±14.2 years. The typical CT findings were consistent with mainly GGOs (78.8%) followed by consolidation. Atypical CT patterns according to previous reports were also observed including tree in bud, crazy paving, bronchiectasis, round organizing pneumonia, pulmonary nodules, mediastinal lymphadenopathy, cavitation and pleural thickening. Lung involvement was significantly more in the lower lobes than upper lobes. CT severity score was significantly higher in the lower lobes as well. Chest CT severity score (CT-SS) was significantly higher in cases with most common pathological lung changes (p < 0.001) except for tree in bud, crazy paving and cavitation. Conclusion: CT-SS is an essential examination tool in the diagnosis, disease severity evaluation and lobar extension of COVID-19 infection. High CT-SS are significantly associated with certain chest CT findings like GGOs, consolidation, bronchiectasis and interlobular septa thickening which reflects the seriousness of such CT findings in COVID-19 at time of diagnosis.https://journals.lww.com/10.4103/injms.injms_101_21computed tomographycomputed tomography severity scorecovid-19 pneumoniaground-glass opacity
spellingShingle Rajaa Suhail Najim
Ahmed Diaa Abdulwahab
Dina Nasih Tawfeeq
Significance of Chest Computed Tomography Scan Findings at Time of Diagnosis in Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia
Indian Journal of Medical Specialities
computed tomography
computed tomography severity score
covid-19 pneumonia
ground-glass opacity
title Significance of Chest Computed Tomography Scan Findings at Time of Diagnosis in Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia
title_full Significance of Chest Computed Tomography Scan Findings at Time of Diagnosis in Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia
title_fullStr Significance of Chest Computed Tomography Scan Findings at Time of Diagnosis in Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia
title_full_unstemmed Significance of Chest Computed Tomography Scan Findings at Time of Diagnosis in Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia
title_short Significance of Chest Computed Tomography Scan Findings at Time of Diagnosis in Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia
title_sort significance of chest computed tomography scan findings at time of diagnosis in patients with covid 19 pneumonia
topic computed tomography
computed tomography severity score
covid-19 pneumonia
ground-glass opacity
url https://journals.lww.com/10.4103/injms.injms_101_21
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