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.