Differential diagnoses of acute ground-glass opacity in chest computed tomography: pictorial essay

ABSTRACT

Ground-glass opacity is a very frequent and unspecified finding in chest computed tomography. Therefore, it admits a wide range of differential diagnoses in the acute context, from viral pneumonias such as influenza virus, coronavirus disease 2019 and cytomegalovirus and even non-infectious lesions, such as vaping, pulmonary infarction, alveolar hemorrhage and pulmonary edema. For this diagnostic differentiation, ground glass must be correlated with other findings in imaging tests, with laboratory tests and with the patients’ clinical condition. In the context of a pandemic, it is extremely important to remember the other pathologies with similar findings to coronavirus disease 2019 in the imaging exams.

Keywords:
Coronavirus infections; COVID-19; Pandemics; SARS-CoV-2; Thorax/diagnostic imaging; Tomography, X-ray computed; Diagnosis, differential