Asociación entre los hallazgos por tomografía computarizada y el desenlace de 44 pacientes oncológicos en cuidados paliativos, con COVID-19.

Purpose: To identify patterns of chest computed tomography (CT) imaging that associate with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lethality in palliative care patients. Methods: Data were collected from 44 patients with COVID-19 confirmed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The total CT score comprised the sum of lung involvement (5 lobes, scores 1-4 for each lobe). Twenty-two patients who recovered from COVID-19 and 22 patients who died were enrolled. The clinical and imaging characteristics between the deceased patients and survivors were compared. Results: Diffuse lesions were present in 20 (91%) patients who succumbed but only in 12 (55%) patients who recovered (p < 0.006). The presence of pleural effusion on the initial CT chest was also more frequently found in deceased than in surviving patients (55 vs. 9%, p = 0.001). In the death group, the total CT score was higher than that of the recovery group (12.4 ± 2.54 vs. 5.08 ± 3.37, p < 0.001). The optimal cut-off points to predict mortality was 9.5, with sensitivity of 90%, specificity of 91.7%, and AUC of 0.921. Conclusion: A high CT score, the diffuse distribution of lung lesions and the pleural effusion are indicative of short-term mortality in oncology patients in palliative care suffering COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]