The Egyptian Journal of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine (Jan 2023)

Chest CT features of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in pediatric patients and its correlation with the clinical condition

  • Abeer El-Sayed Gabr,
  • Abeer Maghawry Abdelhameed,
  • Shaimaa Abdelsattar Mohammad,
  • Eman Mahmoud Fouda,
  • Shimaa Ahmed Maher,
  • Samah Khalaf Fathallah,
  • Mona Gamalludin Alsayed Muhammed Alkaphoury

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s43055-022-00948-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 54, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Abstract Background All pediatric health organizations are concerned about the impact of coronavirus disease on children, especially on those with other comorbidities; fortunately, pediatric cases appear to be less severe than in adults (De Luca et al. in Pediatr Respir Rev 5:9–14, 2020). The purpose of this study is to characterize chest CT findings of children with and without comorbidities who had confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and to investigate the relation between chest CT findings and the clinical severity of COVID-19 pneumonia and their laboratory findings. Results The study was conducted on 36 patients, 72.2% of whom had associated comorbidities. Twenty-three patients (63.88%) had abnormal CT findings. Consolidative patches were the most common radiological sign (55.6%) followed by ground glass opacities (50%). The lesions were bilateral (58.3%), having predominantly peripheral distribution (38.9%) with predominant left lower lobe affection (25%). Cases with clinically severe chest conditions had significantly more prevalent consolidative patches (p = 0.026) which show a higher CT density (p = 0.01) and a significantly higher CT severity score (SS) compared to other groups (p = 0.029). The cutoff of severity score 4/20 had 100% sensitivity and 78.12% specificity in the diagnosis of severe cases. There were no statistically significant differences between patients with or without comorbidities regarding CT-SS or any radiological signs. Conclusions Consolidation was the most common radiological finding in children with COVID-19 and was more prevalent and denser in severe cases. The CT-SS may be used as a complementary tool for the evaluation of the severity of the chest condition. Chest CT-SS more than 4 can be used as an indicator of severe cases, yet no significant difference in CT-SS between patients with associated comorbidities or not.

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