O uso do diagnóstico por imagem como auxílio no diagnóstico da COVID-19: uma revisão integrativa da literatura

Abstract

COVID-19 is an acute cardio-respiratory infection caused by the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus, considered serious and with a high level of transmission and global distribution. It began in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China, and initially several cases of viral pneumonia were observed, with an unknown cause. This is how the WHO was notified, on December 31, 2019, by the Chinese authorities and on March 11, 2020 it declared a pandemic. With the rapid evolution of the infection, the number of cases and deaths increased exponentially, in Brazil and in the world. Thus, the need for a possible treatment or ways to mitigate the increase in cases proved to be essential. The symptoms presented by COVID-19 are nonspecific and very broad, ranging from asymptomatic to mild upper respiratory tract illnesses (flu-like symptoms, for example), severe viral pneumonia with respiratory failure to death. In this scenario, diagnostic imaging (X-ray, chest CT and ultrasound) has become indispensable for confirming lung changes and infection advances, with computed tomography being the main highlight for providing a standard demonstration with pneumonia caused by COVID-19. , where the main characteristics are: ground-glass opacity, mosaic paving, and in most cases interlobular and intralobular interstitial involvement The present work aims, based on a literature review, to explain the importance of imaging diagnosis as an aid in the diagnosis of COVID-19 and how it has contributed to the discoveries related to the infection until the present day.