Chest computed tomography findings of patients infected with Covid-19 and their association with disease evolution stages

Abstract

Introduction: To describe CT findings in patients with confirmed Covid-19 infection and correlate them with the disease evolution stages.

Methods: This is a historical cohort observational analytical study carried out with outpatients, inpatients, and emergency patients from a private hospital in Maceió/AL, Brazil. The final sample consisted of 390 patients with positive RT-PCR for Covid-19 with available laboratory tests and chest CT results.

Results: The most frequent initial symptoms were cough, fever, dyspnea and headache. The most commonly found comorbidities were hypertension, diabetes mellitus and obesity. A total of 22% of the CT scans showed no alterations; ground-glass opacity was the most frequently found one. There was a significant association between age, comorbidities, pulmonary involvement, ground-glass opacity, mosaic attenuation and percentage of pulmonary involvement with death. The analysis of the disease stages showed a significant association with laboratory data (CRP and platelet levels), ground-glass opacity and mosaic attenuation with the disease evolution stages in relation to the days since symptom onset.

Conclusion: The disease evolution of Covid-19 occurs in stages, and this study describes tomographic findings in patients with confirmed Covid-19 infection and shows they vary depending on the disease evolution stages.

Implications for practice: This paper provides important addition to the various records that have been accumulated through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Keywords: Chest computed tomography; Coronavirus; Covid-19.