CT scans show that patients who have recovered from COVID-19 pneumonia often have lingering pulmonary damage up to 12 months later, according to a new study.

Austrian clinicians say their findings, based on chest CT from adults with SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first year of the pandemic, may even represent permanent lung damage.

“COVID-19 pneumonia causes marked inflammatory lung changes, most of which diminish and completely resolve after a year, although residual findings remain in half of the patients,” said co-author Dr Christoph Schwabl from the Medical University of Innsbruck.

“Long-term follow-up, both clinical and radiological, is necessary to learn more about the course and clinical role of persisting SARS-CoV-2 related lung changes.”