# A Retrospective Analysis of Chest Radiographic Patterns in Patients With COVID-19

## TL;DR

This study analyzed chest X-rays of 289 COVID-19 patients to identify common lung patterns and their correlation with disease severity and lab results.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into chest radiographic patterns in COVID-19 and their correlation with clinical severity and laboratory markers.

## Key findings

- Ground glass opacities and consolidations were the most common radiographic findings in COVID-19 patients.
- Radiographic severity scores correlated with clinical severity, in-hospital mortality, and lab parameters like WBC, LDH, CRP, and ESR.

## Abstract

Background: Chest radiography is often the most utilized and primary investigation for patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, however, only limited studies are available evaluating its essence. Therefore, we retrospectively analyzed various chest radiographic patterns in patients with COVID-19 and correlated the radiographic severity index with clinical severity and laboratory parameters.

Methods: In this retrospective study, radiographs of 512 COVID-19 patients diagnosed with pneumonia were assessed, out of which 289 patients satisfying inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited for the study. The spectrum of radiographic findings was compared with the contemporary clinical and laboratory records.

Results: Ground glass opacities (GGOs; 250/289, 86.5%) and consolidations (166/289, 57.4%) were the most common findings seen in radiographs, with the most common distributions being “basal and peripheral” (92/289, 31.9%), followed by “non-specific pattern” (73/289, 25.3%), “basal” (60/289, 20.8%), and “peripheral” (48/289, 16.6%) patterns. A statistically significant association was seen between the clinical and radiographic severity scores and in-hospital mortality and radiographic severity scores. Also, a statistically significant association was seen between the radiographic severity score and various laboratory parameters (i.e., white blood cell (WBC) count, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), C-reactive protein (CRP), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)).

Conclusion: With this study, we concluded that specific patterns of lung involvement were seen in patients with COVID-19 and that radiographic severity scores correlated well with the clinical severity and laboratory parameters. Hence, in our opinion, chest radiography could be a useful tool for stratifying disease severity and differentiating between severe and non-severe COVID-19 pneumonia.