COVID-19 Scan for Feb 02, 2022

Imaging shows post-vaccine breakthrough COVID-19 less severeA study yesterday in Radiology used imaging to determine that breakthrough infections are less severe when a patient is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 compared with patients who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.The study was based on images collected from the COVID-19 Korean Imaging Cohort for COVID-19 (KICC-19) from June to August 2021 of 761 hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

Forty-seven patients (6.2%) were fully vaccinated (breakthrough infection), 127 were partially vaccinated (17%), and 587 (77%) were unvaccinated.Initial chest x-rays showed no pneumonia in 75% of fully vaccinated patients with breakthrough infection, compared with 63% of unvaccinated patients.

Computed tomography chest scans showed differing levels of severity based on vaccination status: The proportion of scans without pneumonia was 22% (71/326) in unvaccinated patients, 30% (19/64) in partially vaccinated patients, and 59% (13/22) in fully vaccinated patients."Mechanical ventilation and in-hospital death occurred only in the unvaccinated group," said senior study author Yeon Joo Jeong, MD, PhD, from the department of radiology and biomedical research institute at Pusan National University Hospital in Busan, South Korea, in a press release. "After adjusting for baseline clinical characteristics, analysis showed that fully vaccinated patients were at significantly lower risk of requiring supplemental oxygen and of [intensive care unit] admission than unvaccinated patients." Feb 1 Radiology study Feb 1 Radiological Society of North America press releaseHigh BMI more strongly connected with COVID death in racial minoritiesBody mass index (BMI) was more strongly associated with