Clinical study on high-resolution CT and pulmonary function in severe acute respiratory syndrome patients during recovery phase

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is an acute respiratory infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus, firstly broke out in November 2002 in Guangdong and prevailed quickly in Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other regions of China. It was one of the most potential pandemic diseases and had affected more than 20 other countries.~(1,2) There have been a lot of resear-ches~(2-7) in terms of its etiology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical characteristics, diagnostics, treatment and prevention, vaccines and so on.Along with control of the epidemic situation, a great number of SARS patients were in the recovery phase, therefore, we undertook a half-year follow-up investigation on their clinical, laboratory and image situations.