Atypical chest CT findings of COVID-19 pneumonia: a pictorial review

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first emerged in China and rapidly spread in the world causing a pandemic. Chest computed tomography (CT) continues to play an important role in the diagnosis and follow-up of the disease due to shortcomings of the real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test, which is the gold standard in the diagnosis of this disease. Typical chest CT findings of COVID-19 pneumonia have been widely reported in the literature. However, atypical findings such as central involvement, peribronchovascular involvement, isolated upper lobe involvement, nodular involvement, lobar consolidation, solitary involvement, pleural and pericardial fluid, and subpleural sparing can also be seen. Knowing these atypical findings is important to avoid misdiagnosis. This review summarizes the atypical findings that can be seen in the course of the disease and may be confused with other diseases.