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COVID-19: Diagnostic Imaging and Beyond - Part II

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A special issue of Journal of Clinical Medicine (ISSN 2077-0383). This special issue belongs to the section "Nuclear Medicine & Radiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 July 2023) | Viewed by 5122

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Chiara Giraudo

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Guest Editor

Department of Medicine – DIMED, University of Padova, 35100 Padova, Italy
Interests: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; chest imaging; pulmonary diseases; experimental imaging; quantitative radiology; computed tomography; magnetic resonance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

For the last two years, scientists have been focusing on understanding COVID-19 and finding appropriate treatments and vaccines. The articles published in Part I of the Special Issue “COVID-19: Diagnostic imaging and beyond” increased our knowledge about the typical and atypical features of the disease at imaging and the correlation of radiological findings with clinical and laboratory parameters, demonstrated the importance of appropriate diagnostic paths for this patient group, and showed the role of artificial intelligence for this disease (COVID-19: Diagnostic Imaging and Beyond - Part I).

For this second part, I would like to invite researchers to share their knowledge about the clinical and radiological impact of vaccines and further describe the signs of long COVID on different organs. Moreover, studies investigating the role of imaging in diagnosing and predicting the outcome of variants are encouraged. Finally, projects exploring the impact of the pandemic on the delivered care to oncological patients and/or patients with chronic diseases as well as studies about the psychological effects of the pandemic on healthcare providers working in radiological units are very welcome.

Dr. Chiara Giraudo
Guest Editor

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Keywords

COVID-19
long COVID syndrome
radiomics
inflammation
oncology
biomarkers
psychological impact
vaccine

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Editorial

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3 pages, 188 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Special Issue “COVID-19: Diagnostic Imaging and Beyond—Part II”

by Chiara Giraudo and Isolde Martina Busch

J. Clin. Med. 2022, 11(13), 3786; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/jcm11133786 - 30 Jun 2022

Viewed by 977

Abstract

More than two years have passed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue COVID-19: Diagnostic Imaging and Beyond - Part II)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

10 pages, 2443 KiB

Open AccessArticle

What Remains up to 7 Months after Severe and Moderate Pneumonia in Non-Vaccinated Patients with Long COVID? Results of a CT Study

by Ewa Kurys-Denis, Anna Grzywa-Celińska, Katarzyna Podgórska and Miłosz Piotr Kawa

J. Clin. Med. 2023, 12(16), 5388; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/jcm12165388 - 19 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 710

Abstract

Background: There is a growing evidence of long-lasting lung changes after COVID-19. Our aim was to assess the degree of lung injury and evaluate the recovery process of 4–7-month-non-vaccinated convalescent patients discharged from hospital after moderate and severe COVID-19 pneumonia, who presented with symptoms of long-COVID. Methods: On control lung CT after mean 5-month recovery period, we classified and determined the prevalence of residual radiological abnormalities in 39 symptomatic patients. To assess the advancement of the persisting changes we used the total severity score (TSS) and the chest CT score and then correlated the results with clinical data. Results and conclusions: On follow-up CT images, 94.9% of patients showed persistent radiological abnormalities. The most frequent changes were ground-glass opacities (74.4%), reticular pattern (64.1%), fibrotic changes (53.8%), nodules (33.3%), bronchiectasis (15.4%), vascular enlargement (10.3%), and cavitation (5.1%). The median TSS score was 4.1 points (interquartile range 3), whereas the median of the chest CT score 5.4 points (interquartile range of 4.5). No significant differences were observed between sex subgroups and between the severe and moderate course groups. There were no association between both CT scores and the severity of the initial disease, indicating that, mean 5 months after the disease, pulmonary abnormalities reduced to a similar stage in both subgroups of severity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue COVID-19: Diagnostic Imaging and Beyond - Part II)

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12 pages, 1577 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Role of Renal Parenchyma Attenuation and Perirenal Fat Stranding in Chest CT of Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19

by Elisa Russo, Alberto Stefano Tagliafico, Lorenzo Derchi, Bianca Bignotti, Simona Tosto, Carlo Martinoli, Alessio Signori, Francesca Brigati and Francesca Viazzi

J. Clin. Med. 2023, 12(3), 929; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/jcm12030929 - 25 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1226

Abstract

Background: Chest CT on coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been extensively investigated. Acute kidney injury (AKI) has been widely described among COVID patients, but the role of kidney imaging has been poorly explored. The aim of this study is to clarify the role of opportunistic kidney assessment on non-enhanced chest CT. Methods: We collected data on patients with COVID-19 consecutively admitted to our institution who underwent chest CT (including the upper parts of kidneys as per protocol). Three ROIs of 0.5–0.7 cm² were positioned in every kidney. The values of renal parenchyma attenuation (RPA) and the presence of perirenal fat stranding (PFS) were analyzed. The primary and secondary outcomes were the occurrence of AKI and death. Results: 86 patients with COVID-19 and unenhanced chest CT were analyzed. The cohort was split into CT RPA quartiles. Patients with a CT RPA <24 HU were more likely to develop AKI when compared with other patients (χ² = 2.77, p = 0.014): at multivariate logistic regression analysis, being in the first quartile of CT RPA was independently associated with a four times higher risk of AKI (HR 4.56 [95% CI 1.27–16.44, p = 0.020). Within a mean 22 ± 15 days from admission, 32 patients died (37.2%). Patients with PFS were more likely to die as compared to patients without it (HR 3.90 [95% CI 1.12–13.48], p = 0.031). Conclusions: Detection of low RPA values and of PFS in COVID-19 patients independently predicts, respectively, the occurrence of AKI and an increased risk for mortality. Therefore, opportunistic kidney assessment during chest CT could help physicians in defining diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue COVID-19: Diagnostic Imaging and Beyond - Part II)

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18 pages, 3037 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Intra- and Inter-Rater Reliability and Agreement of Ultrasound Imaging of Muscle Architecture and Patellar Tendon in Post-COVID-19 Patients Who Had Experienced Moderate or Severe COVID-19 Infection

by Leandro Gomes de Jesus Ferreira, Álvaro de Almeida Ventura, Isabella da Silva Almeida, Henrique Mansur, Nicolas Babault, João Luiz Quagliotti Durigan and Rita de Cássia Marqueti

J. Clin. Med. 2022, 11(23), 6934; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/jcm11236934 - 24 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1796

Abstract

COVID-19 is associated with musculoskeletal disorders. Ultrasound is a tool to assess muscle architecture and tendon measurements, offering an idea of the proportion of the consequences of the disease, since significant changes directly reflect the reduction in the ability to produce force and, consequently, in the functionality of the patient; however, its application in post-COVID-19 infection needs to be determined. We aimed to assess the intra- and inter-rater reliability of ultrasound measures of the architecture of the vastus lateralis (VL), rectus femoris (RF), vastus medialis (VM), gastrocnemius lateralis (GL), gastrocnemius medialis (GM), soleus (SO), and tibialis anterior (TA) muscles, as well as the patellar tendon (PT) cross-sectional area (CSA) in post-COVID-19 patients. An observational, prospective study with repeated measures was designed to evaluate 20 post-COVID-19 patients, who were measured for the pennation angle (θp), fascicular length (Lf), thickness, echogenicity of muscles, CSA and echogenicity of the PT. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and 95% limits of agreement were used. The intra-rater reliability presented high or very high correlations (ICC = 0.71–1.0) for most measures, except the θp of the TA, which was classified as moderate (ICC = 0.69). Observing the inter-rater reliability, all the evaluations of the PT, thickness and echogenicity of the muscles presented high or very high correlations. For the Lf, only the RF showed as low (ICC = 0.43), for the θp, RF (ICC = 0.68), GL (ICC = 0.70) and TA (ICC = 0.71) moderate and the SO (ICC = 0.40) low. The ultrasound reliability was acceptable for the muscle architecture, muscle and tendon echogenicity, and PT CSA, despite the low reliability for the Lf and θp of the RF and SO, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue COVID-19: Diagnostic Imaging and Beyond - Part II)

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