Differential Radiographic Chest Findings in COVID-19 Positive Patients with and Without Comorbidities

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Infectious Diseases
• Pulmonology

Background:

• COVID-19 causes significant illness, particularly in individuals with pre-existing conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
• Pulmonary involvement is a primary driver of COVID-19 severity.
• Chest radiography is the initial imaging modality for all COVID-19 patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the role of chest radiography in COVID-19 patients.
• To compare chest radiograph findings in COVID-19 patients with and without comorbidities.

Main Methods:

• Included 560 COVID-19 patients with comorbidities and 145 controls without comorbidities.
• Collected chest radiographs with simple fractional zonal (SFZ) scores.
• Performed statistical analysis comparing SFZ scores between and within groups.

Main Results:

• 77% of patients with comorbidities showed pulmonary findings on chest X-ray, compared to 63.5% of controls.
• Pleural effusion was a significant prognostic factor in both groups.
• SFZ scores were statistically different between controls and various patient groups.

Conclusions:

• COVID-19 patients with comorbidities exhibit higher chest radiograph scores.
• Patients with multiple comorbidities, particularly hypertension with thyroid or coronary artery disease, show the highest scores.
• Lower lung zone predominance is common in all patients, with scores becoming significant with multiple comorbidities.