Evaluation of computed tomography findings in patients with COVID-19

Abstract

Due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic the high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) become a relatively available and non-invasive method used for identifying COVID-19 cases. This study aimed to evalute HRCT findings of patients with COVID-19. Totally, 92 patients confirmed cases of COVID-19 by RT-PCR were included in the study. In addition to their demographic and clinical information, their  HRCT  findings were collected for evaluation. Among 92 patients (47 men, 45 women), the earliest symptoms included cough 81.5%, fever 67.4%, and muscle pain 58.7%. Six patients required intubation and mechanical ventilation at some point during their hospital stay. The most common  HRCT  findings in our study were grade 4 peripheral lesion 87%, bilateral 95.7%, mixed 76.08%, ground-glass opacity (GGOs) 75%, left lower lobe 94.56%. Among 92 patients, we had some inconsistent findings including two patients with cardiomegaly, three patients with pleural effusion, and bilateral pleural effusion in only one patient. According to the results, concluded that peripheral, bilateral, mixed, GGOs, left lower lobe involvement are important findings in most patients with COVID-19. We suspect that the disease has more severe lung involvement in men and less involvement in women, which needs further investigation.