Chest CT findings and clinical features of coronavirus disease 2019 in children

Abstract

Objectives: To describe the CT features and clinical characteristics of pediatric patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Methods: A total of 9 COVID-19 infected pediatric patients were included in this study. Clinical history, laboratory examination, and detailed CT imaging features were analyzed. All patients underwent the first CT scanning on the same day of being diagnosed by real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR). A low-dose CT scan was performed during follow-up.

Results: All the child patients had positive results. Four patients had cough and one patient had fever. One patient presented both cough and fever. Two children presented other symptoms like sore throat and stuffy nose. One child showed no clinical symptom. Five patients had positive initial CT findings with subtle lesions like ground-glass opacity (GGO) or spot-like mixed consolidation. Three patients were reported with negative results in the initial and follow-up CT examination. One patient was reported with initial negative CT findings but turning positive during the first follow-up. All patients had absorbed lesions on follow-up CT images after treatment.

Conclusions: Pediatric COVID-19 patients have certain imaging and clinical features as well as disease prognosis. Children with COVID-19 tend to have normal or subtle CT findings and relatively better outcome.

Keywords: children; computerized tomography; coronavirus disease 2019; pneumonia.