Contribution of thoracic computed tomography in the diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia at the Kiffa Hospital Center, Assaba, Mauritania

Abstract

Introduction: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of the images of pulmonary computed tomography in these patients in Kiffa, situated about 600 km by route from Nouakchott, the capital city of Mauritania.

Methods: Clinical data and imaging data were collected from medical records of patients hospitalized at center Kiffa hospital between May 2020 and February 2021.

Results: This analysis included 57 patients (36 men and 21 women aged from 11 to 87 years old (median age, 58 years old). The majority (79.1%) of the infected patients came from outside the town of Kiffa and presented with cough (100%), fever (98.2%) and dyspnea (96.5%). More than half of the patients (76.4%) had bilateral multifocal lung lesions, with peripheral distribution, and 53 (59%) patients had more than two lobes involved. COVID-19 pneumonia with multiple and asymetric ground glass opacities was observed in 45 (78.9%) patients, associated with images of condensation in 34 (57.6%) and/or crazy paving images in 7 (12.3%) patients.

Conclusions: These tomographic images are typical of COVID-19 pneumonia. Due to long delay in obtaining the results of PCR in Mauritania where a single national laboratory in Nouakchott has the capacity to perform this gold standard diagnostic procedure, pulmonary computed tomography could play a pivotal role in the initial diagnosis of novel coronavirus pneumonia in the periphery of the country