It’s not over until it’s over: the chameleonic behavior of COVID-19 over a six-day period

Abstract

The current global outbreak of COVID-19 represents a major challenge in terms of epidemiology, contagiousness, treatment, as well as clinical and radiological behavior of this disease. Radiological imaging plays a key role in the diagnostic process and during the monitoring of the clinical conditions especially of patients with severe symptoms. According to the preliminary data collected in our tertiary center, we have documented a peculiar behavior in patients requiring endotracheal intubation who underwent seriate chest X-rays. In fact, the radiological pattern of COVID-19 patients may worsen despite a prompt amelioration after the onset of mechanical ventilation. Thus, according to our initial evidence, we recommend to perform seriate chest X-rays in the days following the onset of mechanical ventilation even if the immediate monitoring suggests an improvement. Studies on a larger scale are necessary to fully assess the findings at chest radiographs of critical, mechanically ventilated patients and their correlation with the long-term outcome.