Short-term follow-up HRCT Chest of COVID-19 survivors and association with persistent dyspnea

Abstract Background There is an increasing concern that a proportion of the survivors of COVID 19 might develop fibrotic and/or other non-reversible lung changes. The aim of this retrospective study was to review the imaging findings of HRCT of lungs in a cohort of COVID 19 survivors, coming for sho...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ishan Kumar, Adity Prakash, Manoj Ranjan, Sankha Shubhra Chakrabarti, Ram C. Shukla, Ashish Verma
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2021-09-01
Series:The Egyptian Journal of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s43055-021-00607-w
Description
Summary:Abstract Background There is an increasing concern that a proportion of the survivors of COVID 19 might develop fibrotic and/or other non-reversible lung changes. The aim of this retrospective study was to review the imaging findings of HRCT of lungs in a cohort of COVID 19 survivors, coming for short-term clinical follow-up and to assess the relation of the observed HRCT changes with the presence of dyspnea. Results In total, 40 patients with residual CT findings were included in this study with a mean age of 44.3 years and male: female ratio of 3:2. The presence of residual ground-glass opacities (85%) and reticular opacities (80%) was the most common findings. 25% of the cases had cystic changes in their lung. The presence of dyspnea was significantly associated with male sex and a history of smoking. On HRCT, the presence of cystic changes, involvement of > 10 lung segments, and an HRCT severity score > 7 were significantly associated with dyspnea. Conclusion Survivors of COVID 19 demonstrate persistent changes in the lung on HRCT. We recommend that a follow-up HRCT should be performed in these patients to identify those with post-COVID sequelae.
ISSN:2090-4762