Sunday, November 27 | 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. | S1-SSCH01-5 | Room E351
The effects of COVID-19 on patients' lungs are evident on CT, even a year after initial infection, according to this Sunday morning presentation.Presenter Dr. Martine Remy-Jardin, PhD, of the University Centre of Lille in France will share results from a study that included 79 patients who were hospitalized for COVID-19 pneumonia between March 2020 and April 2021. Patients were followed-up between six and 12 months with a dual-energy CT angiography exam and review of CT lung perfusion images.
COVID-19 patients continued to show abnormalities in their lungs in the year following hospitalization, the team found. CT showed acute pulmonary embolism features in two patients (2.5%) and focal chronic thromboembolic disease in three (3.8%), it also showed residual post-COVID-19 lung infiltration involving 4.7% of lung volume in 85% of patients. Radiologist readers rated lung perfusion as abnormal in 87.4% of study participants: These abnormal findings included patchy defects, areas of nonsystematized hypoperfusion, and pulmonary embolism-like defects.
The findings could give clinicians a better understanding about how COVID-19 affects people long-term.
"[Later] follow-up showed CT features of acute and chronic pulmonary embolism but also two types of perfusion abnormalities suggestive of persistent hypercoagulability as well as unresolved sequelae of the widespread [cerebral small vessel disease] described in the acute phase of the disease," the group concluded.
![Axial images from unenhanced calcium score cardiac CT (left) and curved planar reformation images from CT angiography (right) show that higher long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with greater coronary artery calcium and more obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). Top row: Images in a 68-year-old male patient with higher 10-year mean ambient air pollution exposure (7.9 μg/m3 for particulate matter measuring ≤2.5 μm in diameter [PM2.5] and 17.4 parts per billion [ppb] for NO2) with extensive CAD (coronary artery calcium score [CACS] >1,000 and obstructive CAD [≥70% diameter stenosis]). Bottom row: Images in a 57-year-old female patient with lower 10-year mean ambient air pollution exposure (6.3 μg/m3 for PM2.5 and 4.6 ppb for NO2) with no CAD (CACS = 0 and no obstructive stenosis).](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/06/hanneman.r6SMLzkezo.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
