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Updated: Dec 10, 2025
Lung CT Segmentation to Identify Consolidations and Ground Glass Areas for Quantitative Assesment of SARS-CoV Pneumonia
Published on: December 19, 2020
[Quadruple negative SARS-CoV-2-PCR: still COVID-19 pneumonia!]
Alexandra Dubbke-Laule1, Manuela Gnauck1, Ralf Straub2
1Klinik für Innere Medizin, Krankenhaus Märkisch-Oderland, Strausberg.
Medical History And Clinical Findings:
A 78-year-old man fell ill with weakness, coughing and fever 19 days after a cruise in early April 2020 and was admitted 4 days later with increasing shortness of breath.
Examination And Diagnosis:
On admission, the patient had subfebrile temperatures, exercise dyspnea, and right-basal rales. CRP was moderately elevated and oxygen saturation was slightly reduced. Thoracic CT showed bilateral ground-glass infiltrates. Immediately after the cruise a nasopharyngeal swab was negative for SARS-CoV-2.
Therapy And Course:
Due to the fact that the patient's asymptomatic wife had been tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 immediately after returning from the cruise, we suspected COVID-19 disease and admitted the patient to our isolation ward. Two nasopharyngeal swabs and bronchial lavage yielded negative results for SARS-CoV-2. Finally, suspected COVID-19 diagnosis was verified serologically.
Conclusion:
In case of a high degree of clinical suspicion in combination with typical findings of thoracic imaging, the suspected diagnosis COVID-19 disease should be maintained even in case of multiple negative SARS-CoV-2-PCR. Seroconversion occurs a few days to 2 weeks after the onset of symptoms and can be used to confirm the diagnosis.
