Korean Journal of Radiology

The Korean Society of Radiology (대한영상의학회)
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Small Solitary Ground-Glass Nodule on CT as an Initial Manifestation of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pneumonia

  • Tianyi Xia (Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University) ;
  • Jiawei Li (Department of Radiology, China Resources & WISCO General Hospital) ;
  • Jiao Gao (Department of Radiology, China Resources & WISCO General Hospital) ;
  • Xunhua Xu (Department of Radiology, China Resources & WISCO General Hospital)
  • Received : 2020.03.06
  • Accepted : 2020.03.14
  • Published : 2020.05.01
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Abstract

The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in 2019 led to large numbers of people being infected and developing atypical pneumonia (coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19). Typical imaging manifestations of patients infected with 2019-nCoV has been reported, but we encountered an atypical radiological manifestation on baseline computed tomography (CT) images in three patients from Wuhan, China infected with the 2019-nCoV. Surprisingly, the only similar CT finding was a solitary sub-centimeter ground-glass nodule adjacent to bronchovascular bundles, which could be easily overlooked. In addition, the follow-up images in these patients showed how COVID-19 pneumonia evolved from these small nodules. The radiologic manifestation of the three cases will expand contemporary understanding of COVID-19.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to express appreciation for all of the people for their efforts to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.

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