Chest CT characteristics of 121 adult patients with adenovirus type 55 pneumonia

TU Bo; XIE Yang-xin; ZHANG Xin; CHEN Wei-wei; ZHOU Zhi-ping; QIN En-qiang; NIE Wei-min; ZHAO Min

Abstract：Objective To analyze chest CT findings of 121 adult patients with adenovirus type 55 pneumonia retrospectively, so as to provide a reference for imaging diagnosis of the disease. Methods Of the patients involved in an outbreak of adenovirus type 55 infection in a certain unit in February, 2012, 121 diagnosed with pneumonia by using lung CT scan were enrolled in the study. The clinical manifestations and chest CT features were analyzed. Results All the patients had an average temperature of 39.22±0.77 ℃ and an average duration of fever of 7.12 ± 2.23 days. All the patients presented with cough, sputum, sore throat and pharyngeal congestion, of whom 87.60% with tonsillar enlargement and 64.46% with cervical lymphadenopathy. Ninety patients showed single lobe or multi-lobe exudative lesions, 22 had multi-lobe patchy lesions, 8 single lobe cord-like shadow, and 1 bronchiectasis accompanied by infection. The duration of fever in single lobe lesion group was shorter than that in multi-lobe lesion group (P<0.05), but the differences in the highest temperature, white blood count, percentage of neutrophils and C-reactive protein were not significant between the 2 groups. Conclusions Adult patients with adenovirus type 55 infection have the similar clinical manifestations as the patients with ordinary upper respiratory tract infection. Chest CT scan shows lung abnormalities and fewer extra-pulmonary manifestations in the majority of the patients with adenovirus type 55 infection. Those with multi-lobe lesions do not show obvious severe tendency.