Radiographic characteristics and early clinical manifestations of family clustered coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

OBJECT: To study chest computed tomography (CT) findings in family clusters of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). METHODS: Twenty-one patients with confirmed COVID-19 were enrolled at the West District Qingdao Municipal Hospital, the Fifth People's Hospital of Qinghai Province and Jiaozhou Central Hospital. Eleven were family clustered cases and 10 were sporadic cases not associated with family gatherings. RESULTS: Ten patients were male and 11 were female. The time elapsed onset of fever and cough to diagnosis was 3 to 7 days. The body temperatures of patients fluctuated between 36.7 and 38.9°C. One elderly female patient had no fever. On chest CT, 14 patients with family clustered COVID-19 had bilateral lung lesions. By contrast, 7 patients with no history of familial gatherings showed single lung exudative lesions or consolidation. Seven patients with family clustered COVID-19 had bilateral multiple exudative lesions. Four patients with no history of familial gathering had unilateral lesions. CONCLUSION: Not all patients with COVID-19 have direct epidemiological links to an infected case. They may become infected because of poor protection. In patients with family clustered COVID-19, chest CT often showed multiple exudative lesions in both lungs. In some patients, symptoms may be complicated by influenza virus infection.