Chest Radiography in diagnosis of COVID-19 in Pregnant Women
Chest imaging including Chest X-rays and CT scan can supplement and
augment the diagnosis of the viral infection but cannot replace
molecular confirmation of COVID-19 by RT-PCR. The predominant findings
are peripheral airspace shadowing on a plain chest radiograph. However
CT scan has a higher sensitivity and efficiency than chest X-ray. The
classical findings are bilateral, multi-lobar ground-glass opacities
(GGO) or consolidation on CT scan of the chest. Perhaps the most
specific CT scan finding is the presence of ground-glass opacification
in either one field or bilaterally. These opacifications can occur as a
single patchy consolidation or as multiple patchy infiltrates1,
5, 8,
15, 21,
32, 33.
Liu H et al. however remarked that the consolidation lesions were more
prevalent in the pregnant cases. They showed that even though the
non-pregnant and the pregnant groups shared the same peripheral lung
lesion distribution, the consolidation was significantly more frequent
in the pregnant adults group. This shows that the pregnant cohort was
more predisposed to pulmonary involvement in CT scan. Common CT scan
presentations included: pure GGO, GGO with consolidation or
reticulation, and complete consolidation with predominantly peripheral
distribution and bilateral lung involvement. The abovementioned features
will facilitate the diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia32.