Computed tomography in patients affected by Covid-19: an integrative literature review

Objective:To describe, through an integrative literature review, the importance of using computed tomography in patients affected by COVID-19. Methods:This is an integrative literature review that allows the analysis of bibliographies directed to the delimited topic. The inclusion criteria used in the bibliographic search included original, complete, free and free articles in Portuguese, consistent with the proposed objective and based on the determined health descriptors. Results and discussion: Ground-glass opacity, mosaic paving and consolidation are the main changes observed in patients with pulmonary pathologies of different etiologies. Consolidation is a characteristic usually associated with an evolution of the ground-glass and mosaic lesion (crazy paving), which appears when there is an increase in lung density with the effacement of the vessels and interstitial lines within it.Conclusion:The use of computed tomography is essential in the screening and control of patients affected by COVID-19, acting together with the RT-PCR test, which, in turn, is what will confirm or not the infection by this disease. (author)