The Crazy-paving Pattern in Chest CT of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients; an Alarming Sign for Hospitalization 

Background: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) becomes an enormous threat to all human beings. Via this retrospective study conducted on medical records of confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia patients on admission, we investigate the CT manifestation and clinical and laboratory risk factors associated with progression to severe COVID-19 pneumonia and assessed the association among clinical and laboratory records, CT findings, and epidemiological features. The medical records and radiological CT Features of 236 confirmed COVID-19 patients were reviewed at one public hospital and one respiratory clinic in Quom, from 1 August to 30 September 2020. Results: Among a total of 236 confirmed Covid-19 cases, 62 were infected with moderate to severe COVID-19 disease and required hospital admission, and 174 were followed up on outpatient bases. A significant difference was verified in the mean age between outpatients and hospitalized groups. The incidences of bilateral lung involvement, consolidation, linear opacities, crazy-paving pattern, air bronchogram sign, and the number of lobe involvement were significantly higher in hospitalized groups. However, only the crazy-paving pattern was significantly associated with an SpO2 level lower than 90%, with clinical sign of cough severity. Our data indicate that this pattern is also significantly associated with inflammatory levels and the presence of this pattern along with SpO2 level lower than 90%, older age, diabetes, on admission are independent risk factors for COVID-19 progression to severe level.Conclusions: The crazy-paving pattern can predict the severity of COVID-19, which is of great significance for the management and follow-up of COVID-19 pneumonia patients. The clinical factors of aging, male gender, and diabetes, may be risk factors for the crazy-paving pattern, whereas severe coughing is considered to be the most important clinical symptom related to this pattern, and SpO2 level lower than 90%, which is a matter of more severity.