Article Text
Abstract
Reviews of COVID-19 CT imaging along with postmortem lung biopsies and autopsies indicate that the majority of patients with COVID-19 pulmonary involvement have secondary organising pneumonia (OP) or its histological variant, acute fibrinous and organising pneumonia, both well-known complications of viral infections. Further, many publications on COVID-19 have debated the puzzling clinical characteristics of ‘silent hypoxemia’, ‘happy hypoxemics’ and ‘atypical ARDS’, all features consistent with OP. The recent announcement that RECOVERY, a randomised controlled trial comparing dexamethasone to placebo in COVID-19, was terminated early due to excess deaths in the control group further suggests patients present with OP given that corticosteroid therapy is the first-line treatment. Although RECOVERY along with other cohort studies report positive effects with corticosteroids on morbidity and mortality of COVID-19, treatment approaches could be made more effective given that secondary OP often requires prolonged duration and/or careful and monitored tapering of corticosteroid dose, with ‘pulse’ doses needed for the well-described fulminant subtype. Increasing recognition of this diagnosis will thus lead to more appropriate and effective treatment strategies in COVID-19, which may lead to a further reduction of need for ventilatory support and improved survival.
- imaging/CT MRI etc
- pneumonia
- rare lung diseases
- viral infection
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Footnotes
Contributors PK originally developed the hypothesis, wrote the first draft of the majority of the manuscript with the exception of the radiological literature review and summary interpretation of the review. He also compiled the references and figure and prepared the final version of the manuscript. JPK contributed to the development of the main hypothesis, wrote portions of the manuscript related to the review of the radiographic literature as well as provided radiographic interpretations as well as provided several key radiology literature references and also completed and refined the final version of the figure. He was also instrumental in final review and editing of the manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Obtained.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.