TY - JOUR T1 - COVID-19 follow-up planning: what will we be missing? JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00198-2020 VL - 6 IS - 2 SP - 00198-2020 AU - Lydia Lee AU - Sriram Iyer AU - Ricardo J. Jose AU - Ari Manuel Y1 - 2020/04/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/6/2/00198-2020.abstract N2 - Admissions to UK hospitals with novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are exponentially increasing, yet the healthcare community has not put much thought into follow-up of these patients who, in many cases, will be discharged early from hospital to ensure ongoing bed availability. There is currently no UK publication or guideline suggesting a criterion for safe discharge or follow-up advice for those testing positive for COVID-19. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and viral pneumonia share symptoms and certain radiological findings with COVID-19. In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised that those with confirmed SARS were to self-isolate for 7 days post-discharge, and to have a chest radiograph and full blood count at day 7 [1], while the British Thoracic Society guidelines for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) only recommend a chest radiograph at 6 weeks if the patient is still symptomatic or has a risk factor for lung cancer [2]. This therefore raises the question, what should be the optimal follow-up duration and imaging modality for hospital survivors of COVID-19? If no follow-up is deemed necessary, what could we be missing?There is a real need for a discharge plan for COVID-19 survivors in the UK. Follow-up imaging could help assess the resolution of infection, exclude underlying malignancy and identify post-inflammatory fibrosis. https://bit.ly/2YJ8hyg ER -