key: cord-0707261-silijg39
authors: Lee, Kyung Soo; Wi, Yu Mi
title: Residual Lung Lesions at 1-year CT after COVID-19
date: 2021-10-05
journal: Radiology
DOI: 10.1148/radiol.2021212350
sha: 131dfe3fce49274725da2c879b40f2e54c39c6dc
doc_id: 707261
cord_uid: silijg39

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I n p r e s s have resolution. Therefore, resorption of lung abnormality is much slower on CT obtained more than three months after symptom onset.

It is difficult to get serial CT studies in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia because follow-up evaluations are usually not performed on a routine basis and most patients have mild symptoms and are discharged without disease progression. In this context, Pan and colleagues (1) should be commended for their judicious review I n p r e s s in 209 consecutive patients regarding serial CT findings of the disease at 3, 7, and 12 months after symptom onset. In addition, the authors found that being aged 50 or older, having peripheral blood lymphopenia, and severe pneumonia and/or ARDS disease were independent risk factors for residual abnormality at one year (ORs of 15.9, 18.9, and 43.9, respectively; P<.001, each). Prioritization of follow-up care may be considered for these patients at high risk for the long-term sequelae of COVID-19.

To date, two prior studies described the one-year long-term respiratory complications of COVID-19 using the CT scans and lung function tests (2, 3) . In one study of 83 patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia who were not intubated, impaired pulmonary function was observed in one third of patients 12 months after discharge (2) . In that study, 65 (78%) patients had residual changes on CT at 3 months and 40 (48%) patients at 6 months. CT changes were not completely resolved in 27% of patients, predominantly with ground-glass opacity (n = 20, 24%) without development of definitive fibrosis or progressive interstitial changes.

In the second 12-month follow-up study (3) 

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