Comparison of clinical, laboratory, and radiological characteristics between COVID-19, influenza, and adenovirus pneumonia: A narrative review

Abstract

The Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-2019) pandemic is a major global healthcare problem nowadays, and because of the high numbers of infected patients, it is vitally important to distinguish this from other types of viral pneumonia caused by influenza or adenovirus, which may have similar signs and symptoms. We conducted a narrative literature review and performed a PubMed and Scopus search for studies published up to November 18, 2020, using the following medical subject headings terms: ["comparison," "comparisons" AND "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2," "ncov," "2019 ncov," "covid 19," "sars coy 2," "coronavirus," "coy" AND ("influenzas," "influenza," "influenzae," "human influenza" OR "adenoviridae," "adenovirus," "adenoviridae infections")]. This narrative review aims to compare pneumonia caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2, influenza, and adenovirus in terms of clinical, laboratory, and radiological characteristics. In conclusion, although these viral pneumonia clinics share the similar patterns of symptoms and laboratory findings; we believe that there have some distrinctions especially in radiological findings.