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Review
. 2023 Feb 1;13(2):282.
doi: 10.3390/jpm13020282.

A Systematic Review of Chest Imaging Findings in Long COVID Patients

Somayeh Bazdar  1   2   3 , Anastasia K A L Kwee  4 , Laura Houweling  1   5 , Yolanda de Wit-van Wijck  1   2   3 , Firdaus A A Mohamed Hoesein  4 , George S Downward  5   6 , Esther J Nossent  1 , Anke H Maitland-van der Zee  1   2   3 ; P4O2 Consortium
Affiliations
Review

A Systematic Review of Chest Imaging Findings in Long COVID Patients

Somayeh Bazdar et al. J Pers Med. .

Abstract

Long COVID is the persistence of one or more COVID-19 symptoms after the initial viral infection, and there is evidence supporting its association with lung damage. In this systematic review, we provide an overview of lung imaging and its findings in long COVID patients. A PubMed search was performed on 29 September 2021, for English language studies in which lung imaging was performed in adults suffering from long COVID. Two independent researchers extracted the data. Our search identified 3130 articles, of which 31, representing the imaging findings of 342 long COVID patients, were retained. The most common imaging modality used was computed tomography (CT) (N = 249). A total of 29 different imaging findings were reported, which were broadly categorized into interstitial (fibrotic), pleural, airway, and other parenchymal abnormalities. A direct comparison between cases, in terms of residual lesions, was available for 148 patients, of whom 66 (44.6%) had normal CT findings. Although respiratory symptoms belong to the most common symptoms in long COVID patients, this is not necessarily linked to radiologically detectable lung damage. Therefore, more research is needed on the role of the various types of lung (and other organ) damage which may or may not occur in long COVID.

Keywords: chest; imaging; long COVID; lung.

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Conflict of interest statement

Prof. Dr. Anke-Hilse Maitland-van der Zee has received research grants outside the submitted work from GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim and Vertex, she is the PI of P4O2 (Precision Medicine for more Oxygen), a public private partnership co-funded by Health~Holland involving many private partners that contribute in-cash and/or in-kind (Aparito, Boehringer Ingelheim, Breathomix, Clear, Danone Nutricia Research, Fluidda, MonitAir, Ncardia, Ortec Logiqcare, Philips, Quantib-U, RespiQ, Roche, Smartfish, SODAQ, Thirona, TopMD and Novartis), and she has served in advisory boards for AstraZeneca, GSK, and Boehringer Ingelheim with money paid to her institution. Moreover Dr. George Downward’s, Anastasia K.A.L. Kwee’s, Laura Houweling’s, Yolanda de Wit-van Wijck’s, and Dr. Firdaus A.A. Mohamed Hoesein’s Conflicts of interest relates to the funding structure of P4O2 (public-private).

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of database search and article inclusion.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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