CT morphology of COVID-19: Case report and review of literature

Introduction

In December 2019 a clustering of pneumonia was reported for the first time in Wuhan, Hubei, China [1]. A coronavirus was identified as the pathogen, which has since been given the name Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 is called COVID-19 which has since spread worldwide. In Germany the numbers continue to increase, and the level of COVID-19 lethality in Europe cannot yet be accurately estimated. However, lethality appears to be particularly higher in older patients compared to seasonal influenza [2] [3]. Based on experience in China, computed tomography (CT) is very helpful in COVID-19 in that it can produce an image that is suggestive for diagnosis, and the sensitivity of CT is in some cases higher than that of the current gold standard, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) [4] [5].

The aim of this article is to present a case with COVID-19 pneumonia and to provide an overview of the existing radiological literature on COVID-19.

Publication History

Article published online:
26 March 2020

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