Completed absorption of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia lesions: a preliminary study.

Complete absorption of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia in a short term was not detailedly reported. We aimed to investigate the clinical and imaging characteristics of COVID-19 patients with complete absorption of pulmonary lesions. Retrospectively collected the clinical and chest CT data of 224 patients with COVID-19 in one regional medical center. Currently, pulmonary lesions in 37 patients were completely absorbed. The clinical manifestations, laboratory examinations, and CT findings of lesions for these patients were summarized. Among the 37 patients (age, 39.0 ± 12.4 [14-63] years, 20 males), disease in 36 (97.3%) was mild and in 1 (2.7%) was from severe to mild. The most common symptoms were cough (24/37, 64.9%) and fever (23/37, 62.2%). Their laboratory indicators at admission were usually normal, while the white blood cell and neutrophil count significantly increased at discharge (p = 0.004, p = 0.006). On initial CT images, all patients had various pulmonary lesions (mean involved lobes: 2.8 ± 1.5, range: 1-5; mean involved segments: 6.6 ± 4.3, range: 1-16), which mainly manifested as multiple patchy and or spherical ground glass opacities (GGOs) (30/37, 81.1%) with fibrous strips (19/30, 63.3%) or consolidation (11/30, 36.7%). After treatment, lesions in most (33/37, 89.2%) patients were continuously absorbed. At discharge, previous lesions were mostly absorbed in 11 patients (11/37, 29.7%), the main residues were GGOs (24/37, 64.9%), followed by fibrous strips (13/37, 35.1%). On the latest CT, all the pulmonary lesions were completely absorbed, the duration of lesions was 31.6 ± 11.4 days (range: 5-50 days). The pulmonary lesions in some mild COVID-19 patients (generally with normal laboratory indicators at admission, GGOs as the main manifestation on initial CT, and representation of continuous absorption after treatment) could be completely absorbed with a mean duration of 31.6 days.