Dynamic Changes in Chest CT Images Over 167 Days in 11 Patients with COVID-19: A Case Series and Literature Review
Background: Recently, CT findings have been widely reported to be associated with the clinical severity of COVID-19. However, few studies have reported the correlation between CT findings and long-term outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Case presentation: Herein, we conducted a 167 day long-term fo...
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Published in | Zoonoses (Burlington, Mass.) Vol. 1; no. 1; p. 996 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Compuscript Ltd
01.07.2021
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Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Background:
Recently, CT findings have been widely reported to be associated with the clinical severity of COVID-19. However, few studies have reported the correlation between CT findings and long-term outcomes in patients with COVID-19.
Case presentation:
Herein, we conducted a 167 day long-term follow-up of CT examination on 11 patients with COVID-19 to evaluate their long-term prognosis, particularly in severe cases. We found that the course of COVID-19 can be divided into four stages according to the characteristics of CT images: 1) early stage (1–4 days), with chest CT showing quasi-circular ground-glass shadows and fine mesh shadows; 2) progressive stage (5–10 days), showing lesion spread through the axial interstitium along the bronchi and gradual diffusion to the whole lung; 3) recovery stage (11–74 days), showing gradual absorption of the fibre cord, ground-glass, and consolidation shadows; and 4) normal stage (74 days later), indicating no serious permanent lung injuries.
Conclusions:
Our data indicate that chest CT can enable early detection of COVID-19 and determination of the different stages of COVID-19. Furthermore, mild cases tended to have better prognosis, whereas severe cases still showed cord-like fibrosis in the lungs in follow-up at the 167th day after symptom onset. |
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ISSN: | 2737-7466 2737-7474 |
DOI: | 10.15212/ZOONOSES-2021-1001 |