Spectrum of chest CT findings in COVID-19 positive patient with pneumonia: experience from the Center of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases

COVID – 19 is by far the most important topic in the world of healthcare at the moment. The purpose of this study is to overview chest CT findings and clinical records of patient with a positive real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). For this retrospective study we analyzed chest CT of 118 symptomatic patients with positive RT-PCR tests result in nasal or throat swabs and suspected pneumonia. All patients had undergone chest CT at the Centre of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases between October 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. There were 118 patients, median age was 54 years (range: 22 to 89), 57 men and 61 women. Out of them 104 was discharged, 3 died and 11 patients were treated in hospital at the time of study. Among presented CT findings, bilateral involvement was found in 95%. All 5 lung lobes were involved in 76%. The predominant peripheral distribution was presented in 44% ; both central and peripheral localization in 55%. The most prevalent pattern was ground glass opacity (GGO), found isolated and in combination with consolidations in 87% (N=103). Isolated GGO was observed in 42% (N=50), 5% (N = 5) had isolated consolidations, and 45% had both GGO and consolidations (N=53). Crazy-paving pattern was presented in 14%, linear consolidation in 30% and reversed halo in 3%. Chest X-ray at admission was taken for 81 patients (69%), and signs of pneumonia was found in 77% (N=63). The research revealed that typical CT finding in Covid-19 pneumonia was ground glass opacity (GGO), isolated or in combination with consolidations. Despite the geographical difference CT features are quite similar with statistics presented in most up to date researches available in PubMed platform. CT can give more detailed information, while chest X-rays alone are not accurate enough in detection of pneumonia.