Clinical Features and Computed Tomographic Manifestations of Patients with 2019 Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia: A Single Center Study in Shanghai, China

Background: To study the clinical features and CT manifestations of patients with confirmed 2019-nCoV pneumonia and compare between patients with and without 2019-nCoV infection among all the suspects during the pandemic period. Methods: The patients were enrolled from Jan 20 to Feb 1, 2020, at the fever observation department. All the patients with suspected 2019-nCoV infection were tested by RT-­PCR. All the clinical data, laboratory results, imaging findings on CT was retrospectively reviewed. Findings: Seven patients were confirmed 2019­nCoV positive while 21 patients were negative. No statistical difference was observed in all the clinical features between these 2 groups (p> 0.05). All the positive patients had pulmonary infiltrations, located predominantly in the peripheral zone compared with negative group (100% vs. 43.75%, p=0.02). The number of infiltrated lung lobes and segments in the positive group were higher than that in the negative group (5/12 vs. 2/4, p=0.00/0.00), and more right lower lung segments were affected in the positive group although no significant difference was observed (71.43% vs. 28.57%, p=0.08). Air bronchogram was more frequent in the positive group (100% vs. 19.50%, p=0.00), and the tree-in-bud sign was less common (14.29% vs. 19.05%, p=0.00). Interpretation: The imaging pattern of multifocal patchy peripheral pure ground glass opacity (GGO), mixed GGO or consolidation predominant in the lower lung, with more extensive GGO than consolidation in CT scans within the first week of illness is highly suspicious of 2019-nCoV infection during the outbreak, which may be crucial for early treatment and prompt isolation. Funding: No funding. Declaration of Interest: The authors of this study declare that they each have no conflict of interest. Ethical Approval: This retrospective study was approved by our Institutional Review Board (KY2020-26). The written informed consent was waived.