Investigating the Relationship between Pulmonary Thromboembolism and the Severity of Parenchymal Involvement in Patients with COVID-19 Undergoing CT Pulmonary Angiography

Pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is one of the well-known consequences of COVID-19 infection. We aim to evaluate the relationship between pulmonary thromboembolism and the severity of parenchymal involvement in patients with COVID-19 infection.

In this retrospective study, we evaluated 238 COVID-19 patients who underwent CT angiography of the lung between April and October 2021. Background diseases, laboratory parameters, clinical outcomes, and venous thrombosis of the patients were recorded. A radiologist assessed the severity of pulmonary thromboembolism on pulmonary CT angiography using the Mastora system. Factors associated with PTE and severity of arterial occlusion were evaluated using statistical analysis. A P-value of 0.05 was considered significant.

The average age of the patients was 53 ± 16.4. 47.1% (112) of patients were female and 51.7% (123) were male. The rate of lung involvement in patients was not affected by age (P = 0.4). In 26.5% of patients, PTE was positive, which had almost the same distribution in both sexes, and no difference was seen between male and female patients. The incidence of PTE was not affected by the age of the patients (P = 0.7). The severity of lung involvement was an average of 56% ± 24.1 in patients, which was significantly higher in men (P = 0.007). Also, lung involvement was significantly higher in patients who had PTE (P = 0.02).

The severity of lung involvement following COVID-19 infection is higher in men than women. The incidence of PTE is higher in patients with more severe pulmonary involvement.