Anatomical and stereological examination of infected lung area volumes in CT images of COVID-19 positive patients by age and gender.

INTRODUCTION: SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection is transmitted by droplets and causes 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.
METHODS: 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, groups of 2 to 10 decads consisting of male and female patients were formed. Images were skipped at certain intervals from the lung CT images of 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.
RESULTS: When the infected COVID-19 lung volume/total lung volume (%) ratio was examined according to gender and decades, a statistically significant difference was observed according to gender in the 2nd, 6th, and 9th decades. When the ratio of infected COVID-19 lung volume to total lung volume by decades was compared, a statistically significant difference was observed in both genders (p=0.001).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Further studies and medical research are needed to better understand age- and sex-specific differences for effective intervention.