The diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 should not only depend on nucleic acid test, but also be based on clinical information such as medical history and radiographic findings. It’s critical to identify patients with high risk of rapid progression. Treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 should be individualized according to the underlying diseases and progression manner. For severely ill patients, oxygen and nutrition supplementation need to be strengthened, and for some highly selected cases, administration of glucocorticoids might be beneficial.
ObjectiveTo explore the characteristics of chest high-resolution CT in common-type coronavirus disease 2019 patients.MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed on 35 patients in the Fever Clinic of West China Hospital of Sichuan University from January 21 to February 23, 2020. According to the nucleic acid test results, the patients were divided into a nucleic acid positive group of 14 cases, and a nucleic acid negative group of 21 cases. The clinical characteristics and high-resolution CT results (including lesion distribution, morphology, density, paving stone sign, air bronchial sign, vascular thickening sign, pleural effusion and enlarged lymph nodes, etc.) of the patients in each group were compared.ResultsThere was no statistically significant difference in the ratio of males to females, age distribution, clinical symptoms, or absolute lymphocyte values between the nucleic acid positive group and the nucleic acid negative group (P>0.05). The difference in epidemiological history between the two groups was statistically significant (P<0.05). The proportions of abnormal lymphocytes and white blood cell counts in the nucleic acid negative group were higher than those in the nucleic acid positive group (66.7% vs. 28.6%, P=0.041; 42.9% vs. 7.1%, P=0.028). The proportion of air bronchial signs in the nucleic acid negative group was higher than that in the nucleic acid positive group (47.6% vs. 7.1%, P=0.023). There was no significant difference in other high-resolution CT imaging findings between the two groups (P>0.05).ConclusionsCommon-type coronavirus disease 2019 patients have certain positive findings on chest high-resolution CT imagings. In clinical practice, high-resolution CT and other factors can be combined to assist in the diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019.