Chest CT pulmonary findings in clinically recovered patients with RT-PCR confirmed SARS-CoV2 infection and COVID-19 pneumonia

Outbreak of SARS-CoV 2, a new coronavirus, has rapidly spread worldwide since the end of 2019. Novel coronavirus induces lung damage leading to pneumonia of different severity. It’s hypothesized that COVID-19 pneumonia may result in stable or progressive pulmonary fibrosis after disease, which may lead to significant functional impairment. Computed tomography (CT) is proved as a highly informative method in assessing lung changes. Aim of study was to assess frequency and type of pulmonary CT symptoms in patients recovered after COVID-19 infection. Patients with history of RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 infection and acute COVID-19 pneumonia, moderate or severe stage, hospitalized in Riga Eastern University Hospital and later discharged were included in this study. Patients gender, age, comorbidities, clinical course, received pneumonia treatment, lowest blood oxygen saturation level, time spent on non-invasive oxygen therapy were compared with CT findings. Lung CT scan was performed on day 14 after discharge or later. Following symptoms were assessed using originally created protocol: lesion’s location, multiplicity, signs of interlobular septal thickening, parenchyma fibrotic changes, ground glass opacities, parenchyma bands, infiltrative consolidation, mediastinal lymphadenopathy, pleural effusion size, bronchial tree changes. Descriptive and analytical statistics was performed by SPSS software. Significance was considered with p<0.05. Among 24 studied patients CT early symptoms of lung fibrosis were found in 16,5% cases [CI: 4,1–33,3%]. Typical CT signs suggesting development of early pulmonary fibrosis were ground glass opacification, parenchyma fibrotic bands, interlobular septal thickening. There was no positive correlation between clinical course or comorbidities and early pulmonary fibrosis signs on CT. Our preliminary results show, that significant part of COVID-19 pneumonia patients develops lung fibrotic changes with typical distribution months after discharge. It’s necessary to continue this ongoing research to determine relationship between radiological findings and clinic in follow-up studies for planning adequate treatment, and predict outcome of disease.