Introduction. There is no unequivocal opinion concerning the influence of decreased liver attenuation on the COVID-19 severity, but its widespread occurrence among these patients has been shown. There has been no evaluation of the liver status both before and after COVID-19. Study objective. To assess the prognostic value of liver attenuation on CT scan in patients with COVID-19. Material and methods. A retrospective cohort study. Data of COVID-19 outpatients were analyzed. Inclusion criteria: two chest CT scans, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels in blood, and polymerase chain reaction results to verify SARS-CoV-2. Subjects were categorized into four comparison groups depending on the severity of lung involvement. Liver attenuation was analyzed by automatic segmentation, where the values less than 40 HU were considered pathological. Results. Data from 499 subjects were included. The groups differed in age and the level of liver attenuation on both CT scans. No correlation between ALT, AST and changes in liver attenuation was found. On follow-up CT, low liver attenuation was observed in males (odds ratio (OR) 2.79 (95% CI 1.42-5.47), p-value = 0.003) and in patients with a baseline reduced liver density (OR 60.59 (95% CI 30.51-120.33), p-value < 0.001). Age over 60 years was associated with the development of lung lesions (OR 1.04 (95% CI 1.02-1.06) for extent of lung injury < 25%, OR 1.08 (95% CI 1.05-1.11) for 25-50%, OR 1.1 (95% CI 1.06-1.15) for 25-50%, p-value < 0.001). Low liver attenuation on the baseline CT scan increased the odds of severe lung injury (OR 6.9 (95% CI 2.06-23.07), p-value = 0.002). Conclusion. In COVID-19, patients with low liver attenuation are more likely to develop severe lung damage.

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Aim: Evaluate the ability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the chest to detect malignant pulmonary nodules compared to computed tomography (CT). Materials and Methods: We searched the following databases with the final date of search on April 7th, 2021: PubMed, Google Scholar. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, we selected studies that assessed the detection of malignant lung nodules by both MRI and CT and included information about sensitivity and specificity. Method of the analysis and data grouping was chosen with regard to statistical heterogeneity of the studies included in the analysis. We used 2 test and I2 statistic to evaluate the heterogeneity. Results: For the systematic review we selected 168 articles found in the PubMed and Google Scholar databases. 21 studies on 1188 patients were included in the meta-analysis. Meta-analysis revealed the presence of statistically significant heterogeneity (P 0,00001 for 2 test; I2 = 99%) for sensitivity and specificity. Hence, we used random effect model for further analysis. As result, values of sensitivity for detection of pulmonary nodules with MRI ranged from 70.4 to 100%, specificity - from 60.6 to 100%. Conclusions: MRI has sufficient sensitivity and specificity for detection of malignant pulmonary nodules primarily discovered with CT.