Tsuchida Chika, Sakamaki Ippei, Hashimoto Norichika, Iwasaki Toshiko, Saiki Yoshitomo, Takeuchi Yuzuru, Katsuo Shinichi, Iwasaki Hiromichi
Department of Radiology, Fukui General Hospital, Fukui, JPN.
Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Fukui, Fukui, JPN.
Cureus. 2024 Dec 27;16(12):e76493. doi: 10.7759/cureus.76493. eCollection 2024 Dec.
Introduction This study aimed to determine the characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia caused by the wild type and the alpha variant in patients. This study included patients with COVID-19 admitted to Fukui General Hospital between October 31, 2020, and April 30, 2021. Methods Pneumonia occurrence rate, chest X-ray, and computed tomography (CT) findings were evaluated by two radiologists. The time since the onset and presence of pneumonia were also investigated. Results Out of 128 patients, 43 had pneumonia. The pneumonia detection rates using chest radiography were 15.6% (20/128) and 33.6% (43/128) using CT (p = 0.0008). Of the pneumonia cases detected by CT, 32.0% (8/25) of the wild type and 66.7% (12/18) of the alpha variant were detected by X-rays (p = 0.0246). The main finding of pneumonia was a higher percentage of ground-glass opacities than consolidation in both the wild type and alpha variant. In the alpha variant, multiple signs of air bubbles were observed in four patients on chest CT; however, these were not observed in the wild type (p = 0.014). Conclusion The imaging features of pneumonia may be different in variants of COVID-19 compared to those in the wild type. CT helps to detect pneumonia and identify features in patients with COVID-19 because it is difficult to detect COVID-19 pneumonia using plain chest radiographs.
引言 本研究旨在确定野生型和α变异株引起的2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）肺炎患者的特征。本研究纳入了2020年10月31日至2021年4月30日期间入住福井综合医院的COVID-19患者。方法 由两名放射科医生评估肺炎发生率、胸部X线和计算机断层扫描（CT）结果。还调查了发病时间和肺炎的存在情况。结果 128例患者中，43例患有肺炎。胸部X线检查的肺炎检出率为15.6%（20/128），CT检查为33.6%（43/128）（p = 0.0008）。在CT检测出的肺炎病例中，X线检测出野生型的32.0%（8/25）和α变异株的66.7%（12/18）（p = 0.0246）。肺炎的主要表现是野生型和α变异株中磨玻璃影的比例均高于实变影。在α变异株中，4例患者胸部CT观察到多个气泡征；然而，野生型中未观察到（p = 0.014）。结论 与野生型相比，COVID-19变异株肺炎的影像学特征可能有所不同。CT有助于检测肺炎并识别COVID-19患者的特征，因为使用胸部平片难以检测出COVID-19肺炎。
