Objective: To observe the radiological features of chest X ray in SARS patients.
Methods: The chest films of 23 cases of SARS were reviewed in the study. The chest film features and site of lung involvement were studied in early stage, most severe stage and recovery stage. The sequential chest film were evaluated hemiquantitatively. The correlation between the score of lung involvement and clinical course was also studied.
Results: The lung involvement was most common in lower lung field and outer zone both in early and acute stage. 91.3% cases had bilateral involvement and 91.2% had multifield involvement (two lung fields involvement is 47.8%, three and four lung fields involvement are both 21.7%). The ill-defined and variable opacities showed to be dominant. The improvement of acute stage lesion in 17 cases is related to the usage and increased dosage of corticosteroid, some cases showed non-parallel with symptom and chest X-ray. Hemiquantitative analysis showed there are 6 cases had second peak in X ray, the mean time of onset is 13.2 days, and lasted for 5.8 days.
Conclusion: The chest X ray of SARS has some features and its changes can reflect the clinical situation.