Analysis and classification of radiological results and epidemiology of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia

Abstract

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS CoV-2) virus is the current urgent issue world over. According to the Health Ministry of Turkey, the first COVID-19 patient was diagnosed on March 11, 2020. Since then, approximately 5.5 million patients have been confirmed to be positive SARS CoV-2 virus. In this retrospective study, we aimed at analyzing the epidemiological and radiological findings of COVID-19 cases at the Hospital of Grand National Assembly of Turkey from April 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020.A total of 130 patients (84 male, 25-87 years) were diagnosed as positive with High Resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT) scans and 71 of them confirmed with positive Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction using the patients' nasopharyngeal and throat samples.HRCT scans were classified into 4 stages. Stage I (39.2%) patients' group; the HRCT results were found to be mosaic perfusion, whereas Stage II (39.2%) were found to be Ground Glass Opacity. Also, consolidation was detected in Stage III (20%). Finally, Stage IV, considered the most severe lung findings, and named as a crazy paving pattern was determined in 2 patients (1.53%). Furthermore, 20% of patients were found to be positive using IgG antibody against to SARS CoV-2 virus.Our findings showed that HRCT could be most prominent technique compared to real time polymerase chain reaction for the diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia. The novel classification of HRCT findings will be helpful to early diagnosis of the disease, time saving and eventually cost-effective.