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Case Reports
. 2020 Jun:190:58-59.
doi: 10.1016/j.thromres.2020.04.011. Epub 2020 Apr 11.

Pulmonary embolism in patients with COVID-19: Time to change the paradigm of computed tomography

D C Rotzinger  1 , C Beigelman-Aubry  2 , C von Garnier  3 , S D Qanadli  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Pulmonary embolism in patients with COVID-19: Time to change the paradigm of computed tomography

D C Rotzinger et al. Thromb Res. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

To raise awareness for possible benefits of examining known COVID-19 patients presenting sudden clinical worsening with CT pulmonary angiography instead of standard non-contrast chest CT.

Keywords: COVID-19: coronavirus disease 2019; SARS-CoV-2: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; computed tomography pulmonary angiography; lung infection; pulmonary thromboembolism.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Dr. Rotzinger has nothing to declare. Dr. Beigelman-Aubry has nothing to declare. Prof von Garnier has nothing to declare. Prof Qanadli has nothing to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Axial CT pulmonary angiography in lung window, from a 75-year-old man, who was diagnosed with COVID-19. Images show multifocal predominantly peripheral ground-glass opacities in the right lung base (a–c), with associated vacuolar sign (black arrowheads, a), fibrous streaks (white arrowheads, b), and vascular dilation sign (black arrow, c) suggestive of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In the soft tissue window, a filling defect partially outlined by contrast agent was found in the lateral branch of the right middle lobar artery, indicating acute pulmonary embolism (white arrow). Acute pulmonary embolism was unlikely to be caused by in-situ thrombosis due to interstitial COVID-19 injury since the parenchyma in the right middle lobe was normal (b).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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