Frontiers in Medicine (Nov 2021)

Reversible Bronchiectasis in COVID-19 Survivors With Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Pseudobronchiectasis

  • Qiongjie Hu,
  • Yiwen Liu,
  • Chong Chen,
  • Ziyan Sun,
  • Yujin Wang,
  • Min Xiang,
  • Hanxiong Guan,
  • Liming Xia

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.739857
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8

Abstract

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To retrospectively analyze whether traction bronchiectasis was reversible in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) survivors with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and whether computed tomography (CT) findings were associated with the reversibility, 41 COVID-19 survivors with ARDS were followed-up for more than 4 months. Demographics, clinical data, and all chest CT images were collected. The follow-up CT images were compared with the previous CT scans. There were 28 (68%) patients with traction bronchiectasis (Group I) and 13 (32%) patients without traction bronchiectasis (Group II) on CT images. Traction bronchiectasis disappeared completely in 21 of the 28 (75%) patients (Group IA), but did not completely disappear in seven of the 28 (25%) patients (Group IB). In the second week after onset, the evaluation score on CT images in Group I was significantly higher than that in Group II (p = 0.001). The proportion of reticulation on the last CT images in Group IB was found higher than that in Group IA (p < 0.05). COVID-19 survivors with ARDS might develop traction bronchiectasis, which can be absorbed completely in most patients. Traction bronchiectasis in a few patients did not disappear completely, but bronchiectasis was significantly relieved. The long-term follow-up is necessary to further assess whether traction bronchiectasis represents irreversible fibrosis.

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