Prognostic significance of COVID-19 MSCT chest findings on short-term disease progression

Abstract
Background
CT has been used on a massive scale to help identify and investigate suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 pneumonia. This study aimed to assess the prognostic significance of the chest findings MSCT of COVID-19 patients and to determine if prognosis can rely on the initial CT imaging.

Methods
The study design was retrospective cohort study. It was carried out on 300 patients presented to the chest outpatient clinics in Benha University hospitals and El Abbassia Chest Hospital with clinical picture suggestive of COVID-19 infection. The CT finding were then compared to the short-term clinical outcome of the patients (1–3 weeks), acquired from the hospital patient data archive. According to the progression of the respiratory symptoms (including dyspnea, respiratory rate, and O2 saturation), the short-term clinical outcome of the patients was classified into 4 groups: group A (mild cases), group B (moderate cases), group C (severe cases), and group D (fatality cases).

Results
Consolidations, septal thickening, crazy paving, and fibrotic bands were significantly higher in groups C and D than group A and B (P-value < 0.001 for all variants). Nodules show statistically significant higher incidence in groups A and B than group C and D (P-value < 0.001). The CT severity score shows statistically significant increase with the poor short-term clinical outcomes (groups C and D) (P-value < 0.001).

Conclusion
CT chest is a good radiological marker that can help in predicting short-term clinical outcome in COVID-19 patient. Higher CT severity scores are predictors of poorer clinical prognosis.