Mobile chest X-ray manifestations of 54 deceased patients with coronavirus disease 2019: Retrospective study

Xiang, Chunlin; Huang, Lu; Xia, Liming

To describe the mobile chest X-ray manifestations of deceased patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this retrospective study, we analyzed in patients with COVID-19 from Tongji Hospital (Wuhan, China), who had been died between February 18 and March 25, 2020. Two radiologists analyzed the radiologic characteristics of mobile chest X-ray, and analyzed the serial X-ray changes. Fifty-four deceased patients with COVID-19 were included in the study. We found that 50 (93%) patients with lesions occurred in the bilateral lung, 4 (7%) patients occurred in the right lung, 54 (100%) patients were multifocal involvement. The number of lung fields involved was 42 (78%) patients in 6 fields, 3 (6%) patients in 5 lung fields, 4 (7%) patients in 4 lung fields, and 5 (9%) patients in 3 lung fields. Fifty-three (98%) patients had patchy opacities, 3 (6%) patients had round or oval solid nodules, 9 (17%) patients had fibrous stripes, 13 (24%) patients had pleural effusion, 8 (15%) patients had pleural thickening, 6 (11%) patients had pneumothorax, 3 (6%) patients had subcutaneous emphysema. Among the 24 patients who had serial mobile chest X-rays, 16 (67%) patients had the progression of the lesions, 8 (33%) patients had no significant change of the lesions, and there was no case of reduction of the lesions. The mobile chest X-ray manifestations of deceased patients with COVID-19 were mostly bilateral lung, multifocal involvement, and extensive lung field, and pleural effusion, pleural thickening, and pneumothorax probably could be observed. The serial mobile chest X-ray showed that the chest lesions were progressive with a high probability.