key: cord-263220-g721fj81
authors: Li, Xiaohu; Qian, Yinfeng; Liu, Bin; Yu, Yongqiang
title: Helping the Radiologist: The Role of Scientific Journals to Help Prevent the Spread of COVID-19
date: 2020-03-03
journal: Radiology
DOI: 10.1148/radiol.2020200661
sha: 
doc_id: 263220
cord_uid: g721fj81

nan

We wish to commend Dr David Bluemke and the Radiology Editorial Board for their work on Radiology Special Focus website: COVID-19 (2019 Novel Coronavirus) (https://pubs.rsna.org/2019-ncov). This information will help radiologists worldwide and in China know about the outbreak of this new respiratory illness. We have found this website to be an exceptionally valuable resource that provides the global radiology community with unrestricted access to key publications to help prevent the spread of this outbreak.

On January 22, 2020, the first patient with COVID-19 was confirmed in Anhui, China. Meanwhile, my colleagues and I started to focus on the imaging manifestations of this disease and the spectrum of imaging findings. On January 31, Lei et al (1) reported bilateral peripheral ground-glass opacities (GGOs) of COVID-19 in Radiology. Forty confirmed cases in our hospital also demonstrated the same CT findings in most patients. GGOs were bilateral in 91% of patients, involvements of posterior lungs were found in 85%, and peripheral involvements were found in 86% of patients. Chest CT showed pure GGOs in 82% patients, GGOs with interstitial and/or interlobular septal thickening in 75% patients, and GGOs with consolidation in 48% cases.

From February 4 until the present, Radiology has published CT findings of COVID-19 that can effectively guide our clinical work. Dr David Bluemke released two podcasts concisely summarizing the most important views on the naming, epidemiology, imaging, and clinical aspects of COVID-19. Dr Jeff Kanne wrote an editorial about COVID-19 "Key Points for the Radiologist" (2) and Drs Fernando Kay and Suhny Abbara wrote an editorial "The Many Faces of COVID-19: Spectrum of Imaging Manifestations" (3) , which also helps us in our clinical work. The recently published "Coronavirus Disease 2019 (CO-VID-19): A Perspective from China" (4) summarizes radiologists' understanding of clinical and chest CT features of COVID-19 that will help to detect early infection and assess the course of disease. This review (4) also provides a full translation in Chinese, which is available as supplemental material. This approach is particularly good to accomplish the goals of communicating timely and crucial findings to the international scientific community, while also disseminating the latest knowledge to front-line health workers. It is worth recommending in future work.

Thanks again to the RSNA for staying up to date with cases and commentary on imaging of COVID-19. RSNA has very fast peer review and online publication, helping the radiologist gain valuable time to learn about CO-VID-19 and prevent further spread of this infection. 

CT Imaging of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Pneumonia

Chest CT Findings in 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Infections from Wuhan, China: Key Points for the Radiologist

The Many Faces of COVID-19: Spectrum of Imaging Manifestations

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Perspective from China