Halo, Reversed Halo, or Both? Atypical Computed Tomography Manifestations of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pneumonia: The “Double Halo Sign”

Poerio, Antonio; Sartoni, Matilde; Lazzari, Giammichele; Valli, Michele; Morsiani, Miria; Zompatori, Maurizio

The epidemic of 2019 novel coronavirus, later named as coronavirus disease (COVID-19), began in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and has spread rapidly worldwide. Early diagnosis is crucial for the management of the patients with COVID-19, but the gold standard diagnostic test for this infection, the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, has a low sensitivity and an increased turnaround time. In this scenario, chest computed tomography (CT) could play a key role for an early diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia. Here, we have reported a confirmed case of COVID-19 with an atypical CT presentation showing a “double halo sign,” which we believe represents the pathological spectrum of this viral pneumonia.