@article{Aminzadeh_Talebi Doluee_Maftouh_Amini_Seilanian Toosi_Emadzadeh_Eslami_Tavassoli_2023, title={A Prospective Study of Lung Lesions in COVID-19 ‎Survivors}, volume={2}, url={http://uiemjournal.com/index.php/main/article/view/32}, abstractNote={<p><strong>Background: </strong>We investigated chest Computed tomography (CT) findings of patients with COVID-19 admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and wards two months after recovery.</p> <p><strong>Objective: </strong>We evaluated the relationship between 2-month follow-up CT findings with the lung involvement severity in their first CT scan upon admission and with the medications administered for them.</p> <p><strong>Methods: </strong>Forty-six COVID-19 patients were enrolled, including 23 admitted to the wards and 23 ICU admitted ones. A Chest CT scan was performed and the initial involvement score was recorded. Patients were recalled two months after recovery for follow-up CT. The prevalence of abnormalities in follow-up CT was compared between the two groups. Also, we evaluated the relationship between the first CT score and medications with follow-up CT involvement.</p> <p><strong>Results: </strong>Our results indicated that two-month follow-up CT abnormalities were found in 91.3% of ICU patients and in 47.8% of ward-admitted ones. The ground glass opacity(GGO) was the commonest (84.4%) abnormality of studied cases after two months, followed by reticulation(65.6%), and atelectasis(43.8%). The presence of abnormalities was related to age (P=0.002), initial total lung involvement scores (TLI) (P=0.007), and admission to ICU versus wards (P=0.001). ROC analysis showed that a TLI score equal to 11 had 65% sensitivity and 72% specificity to predict the presence of abnormalities in follow-up CT (P=0.007). We did not find any relationship between the administered medications and follow-up CT abnormalities, except for meropenem. </p> <p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Two-month follow-up chest CT abnormalities are significantly more frequent in older patients, ICU-admitted survivors, and those with a higher TLI score in the initial chest CT scan.</p> <p><strong>Statements: </strong></p> <p><strong>Funding: </strong>The study was supported by the Vice-Chancellor of Research, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran under thesis research number 990061.</p> <p><strong>Conflicts of interest:  </strong>None.</p> <p><strong>Acknowledgments</strong>: We would like to express our gratitude to the Clinical Research Development Unit of Ghaem Hospital.‎</p> <p><strong>Ethical considerations: </strong>The ethical protocol of this study was based on principles of the Declaration of Helsinki ‎‎(IR.MUMS.REC.1399.063). (webpage of ethical approval code is: ‎https://ethics.research.ac.ir/EthicsProposalView.php?id=127653 )‎</p>}, number={2}, journal={Updates in Emergency Medicine }, author={Aminzadeh, Behzad and Talebi Doluee, Morteza and Maftouh, Mona and Amini, Mahnaz and Seilanian Toosi, Farrokh and Emadzadeh, Maryam and Eslami, Saeid and Tavassoli, Ahmadreza}, year={2023}, month={Feb.} }