Department of Thoracic Surgery I, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University (Yunnan Cancer Hospital, Yunnan Cancer Center), Kunming, China.
Emergency Department (Outpatient Chemotherapy Center), The Third Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University (Yunnan Cancer Hospital, Yunnan Cancer Center), Kunming, China.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2022 Sep 28;12:971933. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.971933. eCollection 2022.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been an increasing number of COVID-19 patients with cavitary or cystic lung lesions, re-positive or long-term positive nucleic acid tests, but the mechanism is still unclear. Lung cavities may appear at long time interval from initial onset of coronavirus infection, generally during the absorption phase of the disease. The main histopathological characteristic is diffuse alveolar damage and may have more severe symptoms after initial recovery from COVID-19 and an increased mortality rate. There are many possible etiologies of pulmonary cavities in COVID-19 patients and we hypothesize that occult SARS-CoV-2, in the form of biofilm, is harbored in the airway lacuna with other pathogenic microorganisms, which may be the cause of pulmonary cavities and repeated and long-term positive nucleic acid tests.
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，越来越多的 COVID-19 患者出现空洞或囊性肺病变、重新阳性或长期阳性核酸检测结果，但机制仍不清楚。肺空洞可能在冠状病毒感染初始发病后长时间间隔出现，一般在疾病吸收期。主要的组织病理学特征是弥漫性肺泡损伤，并且在 COVID-19 初始康复后可能有更严重的症状和更高的死亡率。COVID-19 患者出现肺空洞的病因很多，我们推测隐匿性 SARS-CoV-2 以生物膜的形式存在于气道小腔隙中，与其他致病微生物共存，这可能是肺空洞和反复、长期阳性核酸检测结果的原因。
