Ultrasound assessment of pulmonary fibroproliferative changes in severe COVID-19: a quantitative correlation study with histopathological findings.
Intensive Care Med
; 47(2): 199-207, 2021 02.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33392642
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
This study was designed to evaluate the usefulness of lung ultrasound (LUS) imaging to characterize the progression and severity of lung damage in cases of COVID-19.METHODS:
We employed a set of combined ultrasound parameters and histopathological images obtained simultaneously in 28 patients (15 women, 0.6-83 years) with fatal COVID-19 submitted to minimally invasive autopsies, with different times of disease evolution from initial symptoms to death (3-37 days, median 18 days). For each patient, we analysed eight post-mortem LUS parameters and the proportion of three histological patterns (normal lung, exudative diffuse alveolar damage [DAD] and fibroproliferative DAD) in eight different lung regions. The relationship between histopathological and post-mortem ultrasonographic findings was assessed using various statistical approaches.RESULTS:
Statistically significant positive correlations were observed between fibroproliferative DAD and peripheral consolidation (coefficient 0.43, p = 0.02) and pulmonary consolidation (coefficient 0.51, p = 0.005). A model combining age, time of evolution, sex and ultrasound score predicted reasonably well (r = 0.66) the proportion of pulmonary parenchyma with fibroproliferative DAD.CONCLUSION:
The present study adds information to previous studies related to the use of LUS as a tool to assess the severity of acute pulmonary damage. We provide a histological background that supports the concept that LUS can be used to characterize the progression and severity of lung damage in severe COVID-19.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Ultrasonography
/
COVID-19
/
Lung
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Aged80
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Infant
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Intensive Care Med
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: