Early results of radiological follow-up of non-itu inpatients with COVID-19 pneumonia in a large UK district general hospital

Introduction and Objectives Emerging data suggests COVID-19 pneumonia could lead to fibrotic changes post-infection 1 In this study we seek to establish the radiological changes of non-ITU patients 3 months after hospital discharge based on the follow-up models recommended by the British Thoracic Society 2 Methods Patients admitted with swab-positive COVID-19 pneumonia were identified Those who required intensive care and those deceased were excluded from analysis Those who survived to hospital discharge were invited for a 3-month follow- up chest radiograph (CXR) Patients with normal CXRs were informed and discharged Patients with persistent CXR changes were contacted and a decision made for further interval CXR or CT imaging Results 200 patients were admitted with swab-positive COVID-19 pneumonia without escalation to intensive care and discharged between mid-March and mid-May 2020 25 were excluded from follow-up due to patient factors (e g extreme frailty) The patients' characteristics and outcomes are summarised in table 1 87% of patients had their CXR return to normal after 3 months The patients whose CXR returned to normal after 3 months are younger than those with persistent changes (p<0 05) Conclusions Our results demonstrated reassuring findings that the majority of patients receiving ward-based care for COVID- 19 pneumonia who survived to discharge have normal CXR findings by 3 months post-discharge Younger patients are more likely to have CXR changes resolved completely by 3 months Most patients with persistent CXR changes at 3 months are improving symptomatically and radiologically so up-front CT was not requested More follow-up is required to characterise the longer term respiratory sequelae of COVID- 19 Our follow-up is ongoing and more results will be available for presentation at the BTS Meeting if this abstract is accepted We are also conducting follow up of patients surviving intensive care admissions with results submitted separately