Open AccessRadiomorphological signs and clinical severity of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7
Author(s) -
Judit Simon,
Kajetan Grodecki,
Sebastian Cadet,
Aditya Killekar,
Piotr J. Slomka,
Samuel James Zara,
Emese Zsarnóczay,
Chiara Nardocci,
Norbert Nagy,
Katalin Kristóf,
Barna Vásárhelyi,
Veronika Müller,
Béla Merkely,
Damini Dey,
Pál Maurovich-Horvat
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
bjr|open
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2513-9878
DOI - 10.1259/bjro.20220016
Subject(s) - interquartile range , medicine , pneumonia , covid-19 , emergency department , mortality rate , population , severity of illness , gastroenterology , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , environmental health , psychiatry
Objectives: We aimed to assess the differences in the severity and chest-computed tomography (CT) radio-morphological signs of SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 and non-B.1.1.7 variants.Methods: We collected clinical data of consecutive patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and chest-CT imaging who were admitted to the Emergency Department between first September – 13 th November 2020 (non-B.1.1.7 cases) and first March – 18 th March 2021 (B.1.1.7 cases). We also examined the differences in the severity and radio-morphological features associated with COVID-19 pneumonia. Total pneumonia burden (%), mean attenuation of ground-glass opacities (GGO) and consolidation were quantified using deep-learning research software.Results: The final population comprised 500 B.1.1.7 and 500 non-B.1.1.7 cases. Patients with B.1.1.7 infection were younger (58.5 ± 15.6 vs 64.8 ± 17.3; p < .001) and had less comorbidities. Total pneumonia burden was higher in the B.1.1.7 patient group (16.1% [IQR:6.0–34.2%] vs 6.6% [IQR:1.2–18.3%]; p < .001). In the age-specific analysis, in patients < 60 years B.1.1.7 pneumonia had increased consolidation burden (0.1% [IQR:0.0–0.7%] vs 0.1% [IQR:0.0–0.2%]; p < .001), and severe COVID-19 was more prevalent (11.5% vs 4.9%; p = .032). Mortality rate was similar in all age groups.Conclusions: Despite B.1.1.7 patients were younger and had fewer comorbidities, they experienced more severe disease than non-B.1.1.7 patients, however the risk of death was the same between the two groups.Advances in knowledge: Our study provides data on deep-learning based quantitative lung lesion burden and clinical outcomes of patients infected by B.1.1.7 VOC. Our findings might serve as a model for later investigations, as new variants are emerging across the globe.