{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T02:36:15Z","timestamp":1760236575382,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,1]],"date-time":"2021-12-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1638316800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J. Imaging"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The aim of this retrospective study is to assess any association between abdominal CT findings and the radiological stage of COVID-19 pneumonia, pulmonary embolism and patient outcomes. We included 158 adult hospitalized COVID-19 patients between 1 March 2020 and 1 March 2021 who underwent 206 abdominal CTs. Two radiologists reviewed all CT images. Pathological findings were classified as acute or not. A subset of patients with inflammatory pathology in ACE2 organs (bowel, biliary tract, pancreas, urinary system) was identified. The radiological stage of COVID pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, overall days of hospitalization, ICU admission and outcome were registered. Univariate statistical analysis coupled with explainable artificial intelligence (AI) techniques were used to discover associations between variables. The most frequent acute findings were bowel abnormalities (n = 58), abdominal fluid (n = 42), hematomas (n = 28) and acute urologic conditions (n = 8). According to univariate statistical analysis, pneumonia stage &gt; 2 was significantly associated with increased frequency of hematomas, active bleeding and fluid-filled colon. The presence of at least one hepatobiliary finding was associated with all the COVID-19 stages &gt; 0. Free abdominal fluid, acute pathologies in ACE2 organs and fluid-filled colon were associated with ICU admission; free fluid also presented poor patient outcomes. Hematomas and active bleeding with at least a progressive stage of COVID pneumonia. The explainable AI techniques find no strong relationship between variables.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jimaging7120258","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,1]],"date-time":"2021-12-01T05:02:36Z","timestamp":1638334956000},"page":"258","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Abdominal Computed Tomography Imaging Findings in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: A Year-Long Experience and Associations Revealed by Explainable Artificial Intelligence"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Alice","family":"Scarabelli","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Postgraduation School in Radiodiagnostics, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 20122 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Massimo","family":"Zilocchi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiology, IRCCS Fondazione C\u00e0 Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, 20122 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2024-7572","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elena","family":"Casiraghi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Anacleto Lab, Computer Science Department, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy"},{"name":"CINI National Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems (AIIS), Universit\u00e0 di Roma, 00185 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pierangelo","family":"Fasani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiology, IRCCS Fondazione C\u00e0 Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, 20122 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Guido Giovanni","family":"Plensich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Postgraduation School in Radiodiagnostics, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 20122 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Andrea Alessandro","family":"Esposito","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiology, Ospedale Treviglio-Caravaggio, ASST Bergamo-Ovest, 24047 Treviglio, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Elvira","family":"Stellato","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Postgraduation School in Radiodiagnostics, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 20122 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alessandro","family":"Petrini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Anacleto Lab, Computer Science Department, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Justin","family":"Reese","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkley, CA 94720, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0736-9199","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Peter","family":"Robinson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Farmington, CT 06032, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5694-3919","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giorgio","family":"Valentini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Anacleto Lab, Computer Science Department, Universit\u00e0 degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy"},{"name":"CINI National Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems (AIIS), Universit\u00e0 di Roma, 00185 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Gianpaolo","family":"Carrafiello","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiology, IRCCS Fondazione C\u00e0 Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, 20122 Milan, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"WHO (2020). 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