CT findings of normal coronavirus disease 2019 patients during rehabilitation period

Abstract:

Objective：To investigate the chest imaging finding of patients with coronavirus disease 2019（COVID-19） in rehabilitation period. Methods：The clinical and imaging data of 80 patients with COVID-19 diagnosed as common type by the First People’s Hospital of Xiaogan City，Hubei Province from January 21，2020 to February 23，2020 were collected. The discharge standard of the convalescent stage contained body temperature returned to normal over 3 days，significant improvement of respiratory tract symptoms and obviously absorbed inflammation as well as two negative consecutive respiratory tract pathogenic nucleic acid tests showed by the pulmonary imaging（the time interval of taking sample was at least 1 day）. HRCT manifestations of patients were dynamically ob－served and were compared with those at the time of admission. Typical syndrome and lesion distribution and morphology at convales－cence stage were observed. Results：HRCT of COVID-19 patients in convalescent period showed that the absorption of “fly swatter breaking sign” and “water inclusion sign” was decreased，with earlier and more obvious absorption of water inclusion sign. Com－pared with HRCT at the time of admission，localized patchy ground glass foci in the dorsolateral or posterior basal segments of both lungs，multi segmented ground glass density foci and diffusely distributed ground glass foci in the convalescent stage were obvious，the remaining interlobular interstitial and interlobular septal thickening，subpleural arc shadow and irregular fibrous cord shadow foci among some patients were found and no obvious mediastinal lymphadenopathy and pleural effusion were found. Conclusion：The de－crease of absorption of “broken fly swatter sign” and “wrapped water pipe sign” is a typical manifestation of the improvement of the general COVID-19 in the rehabilitation period. In the rehabilitation period，the discharged patients often left ground glass like changes，thickening of interlobular septum and/or in－terlobular septum，subpleural arc shadow and residual intersti－tial inflammation. Only by popularizing HRCT in the clinical follow-up can effectively observe the dynamic changes of resid－ual lesions，reduce the residual lesions and lower the risk of de－veloping interstitial fibrosis.