Al Taei Tareq, Yusuf Zainab, Al Mail Sarah, Bunajem Fatema, Abdulrahim Bedor, Meshkhas Marwa, Sulail Khaled
Radiology, Salmaniya Medical Complex, Manama, BHR.
Cureus. 2023 Jul 30;15(7):e42677. doi: 10.7759/cureus.42677. eCollection 2023 Jul.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (CO-VID-19) is known to predominantly present with respiratory symptoms; however, a significant proportion of patients present with digestive symptoms. These symptoms are often non-specific and as such prompt the treating physician to request further imaging evaluation. Understanding the abdominal imaging findings in COVID-19 and their possible associations is thus crucial to direct patient care and prevent misdiagnosis. The aim of this study was to describe abdominal imaging findings on both computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound scans in cases with positive COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests performed at our institution, and also, to evaluate the reason for requesting these imaging studies, and to correlate these findings with patients' demographics.
A retrospective observational study was conducted at Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain, between February 2021 and March 2022. We examined the abdominal CT and ultrasound data for PCR-confirmed COVID-19 patients. The demographic data, reason for requesting imaging and imaging findings were gathered by reviewing the hospital's electronic health records and picture archiving and communicating system (PACS).
The study included 97 patients, with the majority being male (57.7%). The most common reason for imaging was abdominal pain, as seen in over half of the patients (60.8%), followed by deranged liver enzymes (18.6%). More than 75% of imaging studies showed positive abdominal findings with the majority (19.6%) showing non-specific inflammatory findings, followed by gallbladder disease (13.4%). The CT studies were more likely to yield positive findings as compared to ultrasound, with only 7 (11.3%) CT scans yielding normal findings (χ = 14.65; P < 0.01).
To our knowledge, the research conducted on the abdominal manifestations of COVID-19 is still limited, especially in our region. Our study showed that there are variable presentations of abdominal organ involvement in COVID-19 cases, and as such more data is required to direct choice of imaging study, protocol, and interpretation of findings to better guide patient management.
已知2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）主要表现为呼吸道症状；然而，相当一部分患者表现为消化系统症状。这些症状往往不具有特异性，因此促使主治医生要求进行进一步的影像学评估。了解COVID-19患者的腹部影像学表现及其可能的关联对于指导患者护理和防止误诊至关重要。本研究的目的是描述在我们机构进行COVID-19聚合酶链反应（PCR）检测呈阳性的病例中，计算机断层扫描（CT）和超声扫描的腹部影像学表现，同时评估要求进行这些影像学检查的原因，并将这些表现与患者的人口统计学特征相关联。
2021年2月至2022年3月在巴林萨勒曼尼亚医疗中心进行了一项回顾性观察研究。我们检查了PCR确诊的COVID-19患者的腹部CT和超声数据。通过查阅医院的电子健康记录以及图像存档与通信系统（PACS）收集人口统计学数据、要求进行影像学检查的原因以及影像学表现。
该研究纳入了97例患者，其中大多数为男性（57.7%）。进行影像学检查最常见的原因是腹痛，超过一半的患者（60.8%）出现这种情况，其次是肝酶异常（18.6%）。超过75%的影像学检查显示腹部有阳性发现，其中大多数（19.6%）显示非特异性炎症表现，其次是胆囊疾病（13.4%）。与超声相比，CT检查更有可能得出阳性结果，只有7例（11.3%）CT扫描结果正常（χ = 14.65；P < 0.01）。
据我们所知，关于COVID-19腹部表现的研究仍然有限，尤其是在我们这个地区。我们的研究表明，COVID-19病例中腹部器官受累的表现多种多样，因此需要更多数据来指导影像学检查的选择、方案制定以及对检查结果的解读，以便更好地指导患者管理。
