Short- and Long-Term Chest-CT Findings after Recovery from COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Author:

Babar Mustufa1,Jamil Hasan23ORCID,Mehta Neil1,Moutwakil Ahmed1ORCID,Duong Tim Q.1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Radiology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY 10461, USA

2. Division of Surveillance and Policy Evaluation, National Cancer Center Institute for Cancer Control, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan

3. School of Public Health, St. Luke International University, Tokyo 104-0044, Japan

Abstract

While ground-glass opacity, consolidation, and fibrosis in the lungs are some of the hallmarks of acute SAR-CoV-2 infection, it remains unclear whether these pulmonary radiological findings would resolve after acute symptoms have subsided. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate chest computed tomography (CT) abnormalities stratified by COVID-19 disease severity and multiple timepoints post-infection. PubMed/MEDLINE was searched for relevant articles until 23 May 2023. Studies with COVID-19-recovered patients and follow-up chest CT at least 12 months post-infection were included. CT findings were evaluated at short-term (1–6 months) and long-term (12–24 months) follow-ups and by disease severity (severe and non-severe). A generalized linear mixed-effects model with random effects was used to estimate event rates for CT findings. A total of 2517 studies were identified, of which 43 met the inclusion (N = 8858 patients). Fibrotic-like changes had the highest event rate at short-term (0.44 [0.3–0.59]) and long-term (0.38 [0.23–0.56]) follow-ups. A meta-regression showed that over time the event rates decreased for any abnormality (β = −0.137, p = 0.002), ground-glass opacities (β = −0.169, p < 0.001), increased for honeycombing (β = 0.075, p = 0.03), and did not change for fibrotic-like changes, bronchiectasis, reticulation, and interlobular septal thickening (p > 0.05 for all). The severe subgroup had significantly higher rates of any abnormalities (p < 0.001), bronchiectasis (p = 0.02), fibrotic-like changes (p = 0.03), and reticulation (p < 0.001) at long-term follow-ups when compared to the non-severe subgroup. In conclusion, significant CT abnormalities remained up to 2 years post-COVID-19, especially in patients with severe disease. Long-lasting pulmonary abnormalities post-SARS-CoV-2 infection signal a future public health concern, necessitating extended monitoring, rehabilitation, survivor support, vaccination, and ongoing research for targeted therapies.

Publisher

MDPI AG

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3