TABLE 1.
Total and specific chest imaging abnormalities during follow-up
| Abnormality | Patients evaluated at each time-point, n | Prevalence of imaging abnormalities, % (95% CI) | Change from early to late follow-up, p-value + | Heterogeneity attributable to follow-up time § , % | ||
| Overall | Early follow-up # | Late follow-up ¶ | ||||
| Any abnormality | 3160 (total) 1867 (early follow-up) 1295 (late follow-up) |
63.9 (56.9–70.6) | 67.2 (56.8–76.8) | 60.8 (51.3–70.0) | 0.37 | 0.0 |
| Any abnormality (CT imaging subgroup) | 2817 (total) 1036 (early follow-up) 1781 (late follow-up) |
62.8 (55.9–69.4) | 68.1 (58.4–77.1) | 57.9 (48.5–67.0) | 0.13 | 3.2 |
| Ground-glass opacities | 2659 (total) 938 (early follow-up) 1721 (late follow-up) |
44.9 (37.0–52.9) | 52.8 (38.8–66.5) | 37.5 (30.7–44.6) | 0.049 | 8.5 |
| Reticulations | 1897 (total) 394 (early follow-up) 1503 (late follow-up) |
21.2 (12.9–30.9) | 38.2 (24.4–53.0) | 14.3 (6.63–24.2) | 0.01 | 22 |
| Bronchiectasis | 1732 (total) 602 (early follow-up) 1070 (late follow-up) |
16.8 (9.10–26.1) | 27.0 (9.78–48.7) | 11.6 (5.29–19.7) | 0.09 | 9.8 |
| Consolidations | 1752 (total) 574 (early follow-up) 1178 (late follow-up) |
6.50 (3.76–9.83) | 7.57 (3.61–12.6) | 5.70 (2.23–10.4) | 0.48 | 0.0 |
| Fibrosis | 2091 (total) 1016 (early follow-up) 1075 (late follow-up) |
27.8 (17.9–39.0) | 22.9 (10.9–37.6) | 33.6 (18.3–50.8) | 0.33 | 0.01 |
CT: computed tomography. #: 3 months since acute infection; ¶: >3 months since acute infection; +: p-value from random effects model; §: R2 from random effects model.