Imaging of coronavirus disease (COVID-19): a pictorial review

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by a highly contagious novel coronavirus, has seen a rapid surge of cases over the past 6 months spreading to more than 215 countries and posing a global threat to mankind. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from pharyngeal swabs is considered the gold standard for diagnosis of this disease. Portable chest radiography (CXR), point of care ultrasound, and computed tomography (CT) are crucial modalities in diagnosis and follow-up. Portable CXR can help in patients who are clinically unstable, and also to prevent the cumbersome process of steriliastion after every CT scan. However, chest CT is useful as a problem-solving tool, to look for progression and complications associated with the disease. In a few cases, in our experience (as has also been documented by others), RT-PCR was negative in early disease, and CT chest was able to detect the radiological findings raising suspicion of COVID-19. With this pictorial review, we aim to describe and illustrate the typical, and a few atypical, radiological findings of this disease.