Clinical-radiologic Features of Pneumonia in Patients who had Recovered from COVID-19 Pneumonia

Objective: To investigate the impact of COVID-19, an illness that severely influences the lungs, in the long term, on the frequency of clinical, radiologic, laboratory, and prognostic signs of Community-acquiredpneumonia.Methods: The files of the cases who received inpatient treatment with the diagnosis of pneumonia between December 2021 and January 2023 were examined retrospectively. Patient characteristics including age, gender, lab values, radiological findings, and CURB-65 and Pneumonia Weight Scores (PSI) were documented. The patients were split into two categories: those with a past COVID-19 diagnosis (group 1) and those who had never had the disease (group 2). The findings of both groups were compared, and the data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.0.Results: A total of 141 cases, 61 (43.21%) were female, with a mean age of 71.71 ± 15.42 years. There were 69 (48.96%) individuals in group 1 and 72 (51.14%) in group 2. The mean lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) value of the patients in group 1 upon hospital admission was 321 ± 132.81 and was 274 ± 95.93 in group 2 (p=0.022). Apart from this, no meaningful variation in clinical, imaging, or lab parameters was found when the two groups were compared.Conclusion: Patients with pneumonia who had had COVID-19 before and recovered had no differences in clinical, radiologic, or prognostic findings in terms of pneumonia compared with those who had not had COVID-19. However, interestingly, serum LDH levels of these patients were high.