Characteristics of Chest CT Images in Patients With COVID-19 Pneumonia in London, UK

Background and objective Novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province in China in December 2019; it has then spread quickly and exponentially beyond the Chinese borders and is now regarded as a global pandemic. We aimed to evaluate the chest CT radiological characteristics and lesion distribution patterns in patients of COVID-19 pneumonia in London, UK. Methods We performed a retrospective study and reviewed data of patients with clinically suspected COVID-19 who underwent chest CT between February 1 and May 5, 2020. All patients underwent the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. Lung lesion characteristics and distribution patterns were evaluated by two radiologists. Fisher’s exact test was used for statistical analysis, and a p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results A total of 18 patients (nine men and nine women) were analyzed. All of them had bilateral patchy lesions in the chest CT images. There was no correlation between the severity score and mortality (p=0.790). The distinctive CT features included ground-glass opacity (GGO) and consolidative patchy amorphous lesions, bilateral posterior and peripheral multi-lobar lung involvement, pleural effusions, subpleural fibrotic lines, subpleural sparing, vascular engorgement, occasional crazy paving, occasional mediastinal lymphadenopathy, pleural thickening, lack of cavitation, and absence of reverse halo (atoll) signs. Conclusion CT can facilitate the diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia. Our UK cohort showed slight variations compared with previously reported Asian and continental European cases with respect to chest CT images.