The prominent chest CT findings in Covid-19 patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Assessing the quality and manner of pulmonary involvement through imaging modalities seems to be useful in predicting the severity of Covid-19 and thus determining the best disease management approach.The present study summarized systematically the chest CT findings of patients suspected to Covid-19.

Methods:Data abstraction was independently performed by two un-blinded reviewers on structure collection forms without divergences in data collection. The manuscript databases including Medline, Web of knowledge, Google scholar, Scopus, and Cochrane were deeply searchedfor all eligible studies based on the considered keywords. The risk of bias for each study was assessed using the criteria outlined in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and also according to QUADAS-2 tool.

Results: Overall, 22 studies (including 4052 patients, overall mean age of 48.19 years ranged 42 to 57 years, male/female of 2113/1939) were reviewed. The pooled prevalence rate of CT positivity was 89.5% (95%CI: 95.4% to 92.6%). The common CT findings in Covid-19 patients include GOO in 78.2%, interlobular septal thickening in 48.5%, air bronchogram pattern in 44.5%, consolidation in 37.4%, crazypaving in 21.9%, nodules in 12.1%, reticular pattern in 9.8%, and pleuraleffusion in 7.3%. Other patterns including bronchiectasis, cavitation, lymphadenopathy, or pericardial effusion were rarely seen.

Conclusion: Pulmonary involvement can be revealed by chest CT scanning in about 90% of patients and the most prominent CT findings include GOO, interlobular septal thickening, air bronchogram pattern, consolidation, and crazypaving.