Abstract:
During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, more than 628 million people were diagnosed and more than 6.57 million died. The lung is the most frequently involved organ of COVID-19, which is mainly manifested as COVID-19 pneumonia and pulmonary thromboembolism in acute phase and COVID-19 related small airway disease and pulmonary interstitial fibrosis in convalescent phase. Pulmonary functional imaging uses imaging techniques for regional visual and quantitative assessment of lung function, providing additional regional distribution and location information, which cannot be provided by routine pulmonary function test. In order to fully understand the application value of pulmonary functional imaging in patients with COVID-19, this review summarizes the preliminary clinical application of CT, MRI and nuclear medicine imaging techniques in the early screening, diagnosis, and follow-up of acute and convalescent lesions in COVID-19, and looks forward to the wider application of various imaging modalities and related technologies in the future.