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Observational Study
. 2021 Dec 8;21(1):1233.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-021-06941-8.

Observational study of clinico-radiological follow-up of COVID-19 pneumonia: a district general hospital experience in the UK

C A Musat  1 , M Hadzhiivanov  1 , V Durkowski  1 , A Banerjee  1 , A Chiphang  1 , M Diwan  1 , M S Mahmood  1 , M N Shami  1 , A Nune  2
Affiliations
Observational Study

Observational study of clinico-radiological follow-up of COVID-19 pneumonia: a district general hospital experience in the UK

C A Musat et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: The British Thoracic Society (BTS) recommends that all patients admitted with COVID-19 pneumonia should have a chest X-ray (CXR) and clinical follow-up at 6 or 12 weeks, depending on the disease severity. Little data is available on long-term CXR follow-up for moderate and severe COVID-19 pneumonia. This study aims to evaluate compliance with clinico-radiological follow-up of patients recovering from COVID-19 pneumonia at a local hospital in the UK, as per the BTS guidance, and to analyse radiological changes at clinical follow-up at 12 weeks, in order to risk-stratify and improve patient outcomes.

Methods: This is a single-centre retrospective audit of 255 consecutive COVID-19 positive patients admitted to a local hospital in the UK over 5 months between May and October 2020. All CXRs and clinic follow-up at 12 ± 8 weeks were checked on an electronic database.

Results: Over one in two (131/255) patients had CXR evidence of COVID-19 pneumonia during the initial hospital admission. Half of the patients (60/131) died before CXR or clinic follow-up. Fifty-eight percent (41/71) of the surviving patients had a follow-up CXR, and only two developed respiratory complications- one had residual lung fibrosis, another a pulmonary embolism. Eighty-eight percent (36/41) of the patients had either resolution or improved radiological changes at follow-up. Most patients who had abnormal follow-up CXR were symptomatic (6/8), and many asymptomatic patients at follow-up had a normal CXR (10/12).

Conclusions: Although there were concerns about interstitial lung disease (ILD) incidence in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, most of our patients with COVID-19 pneumonia had no pulmonary complications at follow-up with CXR. This emphasises that CXR, a cost-effective investigation, can be used to risk-stratify patients for long term pulmonary complications following their COVID-19 pneumonia. However, we acknowledge the limitations of a low CXR and clinic follow-up rate in our cohort.

Keywords: British Thoracic Society; COVID-19 pneumonia; CXR; Interstitial lung disease; Pulmonary vascular disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Total number of COVID-19 patients with resolved CXR changes on follow-up
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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