Abstract: A pilot study of 150 patients at premier medical institute of western Uttar Pradesh, INDIA. The purpose of this pictorial review article is to describe the most common manifestations and patterns of lung abnormality on CXR in COVID-19 in order to equip the medical community in its efforts to combat this pandemic. The varied spectra of COVID-19 presentation included fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat etc. Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, COPD/K-Chest and CAD were found as major comorbid conditions. Symptomatic presentation of COVID-19 was observed to be higher in patients with co morbid disease, especially if multiple. HRCT chest in COVID-19 patients had a major diagnostic and prognostic importance as positive CT findings were more prominent in symptomatic patients and co-morbid patients. Clinical symptoms of patients directly correlated with CT severity index. CT imaging was found to be useful in predicting clinical recovery of patients or progression of disease. Introduction: COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is a highly infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), declared as a pandemic on 11th March 2020. The chest imaging findings are nonspecific and most commonly show atypical or organizing pneumonia, often with a bilateral, peripheral and bi-basal predominant distribution. Our study is concerned with the data of COVID positive patients admitted in the institute for the period of March 16- May 17, 2020. Aims and Objectives 1) To correlate clinical and radiological spectra of covid positive patients and their final outcome. 2) To describe the spectrum of lung parenchyma changes in the symptomatic as well as asymptomatic in COVID- 19 patients. Review of literature: This case report series presents a summary of key findings frequently associated with COVID-19, which will assist radiologists and clinicians in preliminary clinical evaluation (PCE). Materials and Methods: The data for the study is sourced from clinically suspected patients from the Covid Ward, LLRM Medical College, Meerut,(U.P.),INDIA which were subjected to chest radiography on 60mAh portable X-Ray machine. The patients are followed up to correlate the findings with clinical outcome. The study has been conducted on a minimum of 150 patients with portable Chest X-Ray machine. Observations & Discussion: The most frequent findings encountered are airspace opacities are viz- Hazy pulmonary opacities, Bilateral lower lobe consolidations, Peripheral air space opacities, Uncommon CXR findings, Diffuse air space disease. Conclusion: Based on our study, few inferences have been deduced; A significant proportion of the clinically symptomatic cases shows characteristic radiological changes on chest X-ray and also how chest radiography can be used as a tool not to substitute but supplement RTPCR in evaluation of COVID positive cases. Keywords: Patchy areas of consolidation, shortness of breath, high resolution CT Scan, RTPCR.
CHEST X-RAY FINDINGS IN COVID-19 PNEUMONIA: A PICTORIAL REVIEW