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Knowledge of lung sequelae after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still limited given the short follow-up time. In this work, publications with a follow-up of radiological findings once the infection caused by other previously described viruses that have the lung as their target organ and that cause probably similar changes are reviewed, including the coronaviruses that cause Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV), and influenza A-subtype H1N1 virus. Lung damage caused by these viruses leads to slow-resolution interstitial disease, with variable correlation with respiratory function tests. The greater extension of the sequelae has been associated with an older age and a greater severity of the infectious clinical picture. However, the pulmonary imaging findings and their long-term functional impact are still unknown.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly transmissible and pathogenic viral infection caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The target organ is the lung. This infection appeared in Wuhan (China) in December 2019 and the WHO considered it a pandemic in March 2020. One year after the first known cases, and although there is a great amount of scientific knowledge acquired of the disease, there are still some unanswered questions. As a matter of fact, there is a lack of knowledge about which patients will suffer sequels, what kind of morphological changes and sequel types will be expected, nor the grade of functional severity. It is known that other coronavirus pneumoniae caused pulmonary sequels and therefore they are expected in COVID-19. In this work we review several COVID-19 aspects related with the development and grading of mid- and long-term pulmonary sequels, including fibrosis and vascular changes, and strengthen the role of medical imaging in this evaluation.

The role of Radiology in SARS-CoV-2 infection has been relevant but marginal. Even though it offers important information on pulmonary and vascular involvement in these patients, its contributions should not be considered diagnostic for COVID-19. Although there are characteristic patterns of involvement, these same radiological findings can be observed in other entities. Mainly it should be considered that Radiology contributes to the disease severity gradation, extension, complications, follow-up and in the prognostic evaluation of these patients. In this review, these contributions will be discussed together with the role of imaging in clinical trials and in the evaluation of new epidemic situations through the creation of Medical Imaging Biobanks capable of using the estimating potential of Artificial Intelligence.