Chest x-ray’s findings in symptomatic patients positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID) flared-up as pneumonia for an unknown cause in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and was spread swiftly outside of Wuhan to other countries, later. Objective:  To find out the Chest X-ray’s findings in positive cases for Covid-19. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Department of radiology, Farooq Hospital Lahore. 150 patients of different age groups were enrolled in this study with convenient sampling technique. We included only those patients in this study who were symptomatic and have positive PCR of Covid-19 virus while the asymptomatic were excluded. Results: All 150 patients were with the history of positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of COVID and were symptomatic. 85 (56.7%) males and 65 (43.3%) females were enrolled in this study. Out of 150 patients 54 (63%) patients presented with the history of fever, 103 (68.7%) had history of diabetes, 54 (36%) had history of hypertension, 57 (38%) had history of smoking, 69 (46%) had history of cough, and all patients presented with the history of loss of smell. On X-ray 87 (58%) shows Air Space Opacification, 98 (65.3%) shows Inflammatory Process, 46 (30.7%) shows Ground Glass Appearance, 52 (34.7%) shows Consolidation, 9 (6%) shows Pleural effusion, 15 (10%) has cardiomegaly, 15 (10%) has bronchitis and 8 (5.3%) has pulmonary edema. Conclusion: The chest X-ray is the basic modality for identifying patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and it is especially useful due to its low cost and low radiation exposure. Early changes in the lung parenchyma and consolidation and hazy pattern can be detected and that will help to reduce the rate of hospitalization due to Covid-19.  Key words: Chest X-ray, Covid-19, viral infection, pandemic disease, mortality