The chest X-ray image features of patients with severe SARS: a preliminary study

Objective To study the chest X-ray image features of patients with severe SARS. Methods Chest X-ray image features in 36 patients with severe SARS were retrospectively analyzed. The image characteristics were compared with those of 224 patients with common SARS. Results The important chest X-ray imaging features of 36 patients with severe SARS included small patch of infiltration (n=27, 75.0%), large patch of infiltration (n=22, 61.1%), large area of lung consolidation (n=10, 27.3%), interstitial lung lesion (n=26, 72.2%), ground-glass shadow (n=28, 77.8%), irregular linear opacity (n=15, 41.7%), diffuse lung lesion (n=12, 33.3%), with single lung involved (n=9, 25.0%), and both lungs involved (n=32, 88.9%). The rates of large patch of infiltration, large area of lung consolidation, ground-glass shadow, diffuse lung lesion and involvement of both lungs in patients with severe SARS were significantly higher than those in patients with common type of SARS (all P<0.01). Out of the 11 severe SARS patients who died, nine had large area of ground-glass shadow with air bronchogram in both lungs before death.Conclusions Large patch of infiltration, large area of consolidation, ground-glass shadow, diffuse lung lesion and involvement of both lungs were the main X-ray image characteristics of patients with severe SARS. Large area of ground-glass shadow with air bronchogram in both lungs indicated a bad prognosis.