Is pleural effusion in COVID-19 interstitial pneumonia related to in-hospital mortality?

The recent severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has highlighted the importance of pulmonary computed tomography (CT) for diagnosis and prognostic stratification of this new viral pneumonia. 1370 lung CT scans (performed at the time of admission) of consecutive patients hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2 in Northern Italy during the first epidemic wave were analyzed by a radiological CoreLab. The presence of pleural effusion on pulmonary CT scan was present in 188 patients (13.3% of the population) and identified a population with more comorbidities. Patients with pleural effusion had more cardio-respiratory complications with higher mortality. Pleural effusion was an independent predictor of death on multivariate analysis with an HR of 1.4 (95% confidence interval 1-1.9). Pulmonary CT pleural effusion was an independent predictor of mortality.