Chest Radiographic and CT Findings of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Analysis of Nine Patients Treated in Korea
- Author:
Soon Ho YOON
1
;
Kyung Hee LEE
;
Jin Yong KIM
;
Young Kyung LEE
;
Hongseok KO
;
Ki Hwan KIM
;
Chang Min PARK
;
Yun Hyeon KIM
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: Coronavirus; Pneumonia; COVID-19; Chest X-ray; Computed tomography
- From:Korean Journal of Radiology 2020;21(4):498-504
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: OBJECTIVE: This study presents a preliminary report on the chest radiographic and computed tomography (CT) findings of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pneumonia in Korea.MATERIALS AND METHODS: As part of a multi-institutional collaboration coordinated by the Korean Society of Thoracic Radiology, we collected nine patients with COVID-19 infections who had undergone chest radiography and CT scans. We analyzed the radiographic and CT findings of COVID-19 pneumonia at baseline. Fisher's exact test was used to compare CT findings depending on the shape of pulmonary lesions.RESULTS: Three of the nine patients (33.3%) had parenchymal abnormalities detected by chest radiography, and most of the abnormalities were peripheral consolidations. Chest CT images showed bilateral involvement in eight of the nine patients, and a unilobar reversed halo sign in the other patient. In total, 77 pulmonary lesions were found, including patchy lesions (39%), large confluent lesions (13%), and small nodular lesions (48%). The peripheral and posterior lung fields were involved in 78% and 67% of the lesions, respectively. The lesions were typically ill-defined and were composed of mixed ground-glass opacities and consolidation or pure ground-glass opacities. Patchy to confluent lesions were primarily distributed in the lower lobes (p = 0.040) and along the pleura (p < 0.001), whereas nodular lesions were primarily distributed along the bronchovascular bundles (p = 0.006).CONCLUSION: COVID-19 pneumonia in Korea primarily manifested as pure to mixed ground-glass opacities with a patchy to confluent or nodular shape in the bilateral peripheral posterior lungs. A considerable proportion of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia had normal chest radiographs.
