Abstract Background After the spread of COVID-19 pneumonia, chest CT examination was used as a substantial non-invasive complement to RT-PCR for diagnosing and as a rapid screening tool when RT-PCR results are unavailable.Our study aimed at the analysis of the lung abnormalities detected by chest CT in COVID-19 pneumonia according to the severity and duration of symptoms.Results In the early phase (n = 60), 32 patients had negative CT findings and 28 patients had positive findings with a mean total lung severity score of 2.13.
In the intermediate phase (n = 116), 4 patients had negative CT Gift Bag findings and 112 patients had positive findings with a mean total lung severity score of 16.08.In the late phase (n = 36), all patients had positive findings with a mean total lung severity score of 17.83.
CT lung abnormalities were progressed on follow-up CT studies.We found a high total lung severity score in many patients with mild symptoms with a mean of 14.77 and a low total lung severity score in many patients with moderate to severe symptoms with a mean of 9.14.
Conclusion Chest CT should be used as a routine examination for diagnosing COVID-19 pneumonia and follow-up Electric Range of disease advance.The progression of lung abnormalities was related to the duration more than the severity of symptoms.