CT-Scans and X-Rays Display the Damage to the Lungs of COVID-19 Patients

As the coronavirus swoops across the world doctors are sharing information and are coming across different ways of testing for it as time goes on. It appears that one of the ways of knowing whether or not you have the virus is through an X-ray or run a CT scan of your lungs. 

These X-rays may be able to determine whether or not you simply have the flu, or the coronavirus. 

The damage done to coronavirus-infected lungs is quite substantial, depending on the severity of each case. 

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Doctors can notice abnormalities thanks to X-rays

Upon analyzing CT scans and X-rays of the lungs of coronavirus patients, doctors have been able to identify common patterns and abnormalities, many of which are similar to those found in patients from the SARS and MERS outbreaks. 

The scans depict patches in the lungs and these findings could assist in diagnosing the viral infection more swiftly, which would assist in curbing the spread of the infection. 

These patches are known as ground-lass opacity, or fluid in the spaces in the lungs, and are easily recognizable in scans of patients who had the virus for a while. 

Some of the patients, such as a 54-year-old woman who tested positive to coronavirus after she visited Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, was admitted to hospital and given oxygen and antibiotics to help alleviate her symptoms of severe pneumonia. Her lungs clearly showed these patches. 

Another patient, a 44-year-old man from Wuhan who worked in the wet market, where the coronavirus is believed to have emanated, also showed similar patched in his scans. 

Coronavirus: X-rays and CT scans show what the illness does to your body https://t.co/lTdEy3wLje pic.twitter.com/7JOf9cSXXm

— Stuff (@NZStuff) March 13, 2020

There are a number of patients who have been X-rayed and where CT scans were taken of their lungs who have shown similar patches. A recent study of over 1,000 patients, published in Radiology, discovered that CT scans were the best method for diagnosing coronavirus at an early stage and that it should be the primary screening method.

An international effort to share X-ray and CT scans has helped produce a growing body of evidence which doctors can use to diagnose those most seriously affected by #coronavirus https://t.co/Km8m4Nj48q

— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 12, 2020