Comparison of chest CT features between progressive and nonprogressive patients with COVID-19 pneumonia: A meta-analysis

The aim of this study was to compare the radiographic features of patients with progressive and nonprogressive coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were searched from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2022, by using the keywords: “COVID-19”, “novel Coronavirus”, “2019-novel coronavirus”, “CT”, “radiology” and “imaging”. We summarized the computed tomography manifestations of progressive and nonprogressive COVID-19 pneumonia. The meta-analysis was performed using the Stata statistical software version 16.0. RESULTS: A total of 10 studies with 1092 patients were included in this analysis. The findings of this meta-analysis indicated that the dominating computed tomography characteristics of progressive patients were a crazy-paving pattern (odds ratio [OR] = 2.10) and patchy shadowing (OR = 1.64). The dominating lesions distribution of progressive patients were bilateral (OR = 11.62), central mixed subpleural (OR = 1.37), and central (OR = 1.36). The other dominating lesions of progressive patients were pleura thickening (OR = 2.13), lymphadenopathy (OR = 1.74), vascular enlargement (OR = 1.39), air bronchogram (OR = 1.29), and pleural effusion (OR = 1.29). Two patterns of lesions showed significant links with the progression of disease: nodule (P = .001) and crazy-paving pattern (P = .023). Four lesions distribution showed significant links with the progression of disease: bilateral (P = .004), right upper lobe (P = .003), right middle lobe (P = .001), and left upper lobe (P = .018). CONCLUSION: Nodules, crazy-paving pattern, and/or new lesions in bilateral, upper and middle lobe of right lung, and lower lobe of left lung may indicate disease deterioration. Clinicians should formulate or modify treatment strategies in time according to these specific conditions.