Clinical and radiological changes of hospitalised patients with COVID-19 pneumonia from disease onset to acute exacerbation: a multicentre paired cohort study

Objectives To analyse clinical and radiological changes from disease onset to exacerbation in coronavirus infectious disease-19 (COVID-19) patients. Methods We reviewed clinical histories of 276 patients with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia and extracted data on patients who met the diagnostic criteria for COVID-19 severe/fatal pneumonia and had an acute exacerbation starting with mild or common pneumonia. Results Twenty-four patients were included. Of these, 8% were smokers, 54% had been to Wuhan, and 46% had comorbidities. Before acute exacerbation, elevated lactate dehydrogenase (232.9 ± 88.7) was present, and chest CT scans showed the number of involved lobes was 4 (2–5) and total CT score was 6 (2–8). Following acute exacerbation, patients were likely to have more clinical symptoms ( p