Anatomical and Stereological Examination of Infected Lung Area Volumes in Ct Images of Covid-19 Positive Patients by Age and Gender

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), a previously unidentified type of coronavirus in humans, causes respiratory tract infection. The infection is transmitted by droplets and leads to several serious diseases characterized by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We aimed to examine the changes in the volumes of lung regions infected with COVID-19, a new and highly pathogenic strain, according to age and gender. After obtaining ethical permission, 6700 patients who applied with positive COVID-19 test were selected between 01/03/2020 and 01/03/2021. Patients with asthma, bronchiectasis, obstructive pulmonary disease, pleurisy, allergic lung disease, lung tumor, and smokers were excluded from the study. After the excluded patients, computed tomography images of a total of 407 COVID-19-positive patients, 188 women, and 219 men, were obtained retrospectively. From the images taken, 2 to 10-decade groups of male and female patients between the ages of 10 and 100 were formed for the study. Images were skipped at certain intervals from the lung CT images for each patient in the groups. By applying stereological methods to the images, the total volume of the lung and the volumes of the infected lung regions were calculated. In the analysis of the infected COVID-19 lung volume/total lung volume (%) ratio by gender and decades, there was a statistically significant difference according to gender in the 2nd, 6th, and 9th decades [(p=0.002), (p=0.001) and (p=0.032)] was observed. In the comparison of the infected COVID-19 lung volume/total lung volume ratio by decades, a statistically significant difference was observed in both genders (p=0.001). Further studies and medical research are needed to better understand age-and sex-specific differences for effective intervention. © 2023, Yuzuncu Yil Universitesi Tip Fakultesi. All rights reserved.