Chest-CT mimics of COVID-19 pneumonia-a review article

Emerg Radiol. 2021 Jun;28(3):507-518. doi: 10.1007/s10140-021-01919-0. Epub 2021 Mar 1.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in early December 2019 in China, as an acute lower respiratory tract infection and spread rapidly worldwide being declared a pandemic in March 2020. Chest-computed tomography (CT) has been utilized in different clinical settings of COVID-19 patients; however, COVID-19 imaging appearance is highly variable and nonspecific. Indeed, many pulmonary infections and non-infectious diseases can show similar CT findings and mimic COVID-19 pneumonia. In this review, we discuss clinical conditions that share a similar imaging appearance with COVID-19 pneumonia, in order to identify imaging and clinical characteristics useful in the differential diagnosis.

Keywords: COVID-19 pneumonia; Chest HRCT; Differential diagnosis.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19 / diagnostic imaging
  • Diagnosis, Differential
  • Humans
  • Pandemics
  • Pneumonia / diagnostic imaging*
  • Radiography, Thoracic*
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed*