Pictorial review of COVID-19 in the Lublin Region – Imaging disease progression with CXR and CT

Abstract

Introduction. COVID-19 is a disease caused by SARS-Cov-2 that has reached the pandemic status and has infected in one year more than 62 million people. Clinical symptoms range from barely noticeable to very severe. It is crucial to recognize imaging patterns of COVID-19, allowing for better diagnosis and treatment. Diagnostic imaging is also essential in monitoring patients in the course of the disease. Objective. In our pictorial review we describe the most common pulmonary manifestations of COVID-19, and show the typical and non-typical features of COVID-19 encountered in our hospital in Lublin, Poland. Imaging the disease progression is also visualized to help realize how pulmonary changes occur over the time. State of knowledge and Conclusions. COVID-19 involves both lung parenchyma and interstitium and has multiple imaging features, varying form ground glass opacities (GGO), consolidations, reticular interstitial pattern, honeycombing or crazypaving. Mediastinal and hilar lymph node enlargement or pleural effusion may appear, but are rare and atypical. GGO are located peripherally, bilaterally and predominantly in the lower lobes, and in the early stage are better seen on CT imaging. Progression of imaging findings take different times, with the peak of of imaging features appearing around 10-14 days after initial symptoms. While it is harder to discern subtle changes on CXR, progression can be very well monitored by his method. Final pulmonary consequences of the disease should be assessed with the use of CT.