Advances in the Diagnosis of Pneumonia

Dear Colleagues, 

Diagnosis of pneumonia, which can be caused by both infectious and non-infectious factors, can be tricky in certain circumstances. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic remains challenging with the emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 mutants (e.g., Omicron). Early diagnosis with precision and accuracy will contribute to timely disease management and control. Notably, the presentation of cases with pneumonia can vary largely across individuals and can be largely atypical in younger and older individuals and cancer patients. For COVID-19, exposure history, symptoms, virus RNA tests, and imaging examination should all be taken into account to improve the efficacy of diagnosis; SARS-CoV-2 RNA tests alone, the gold standard of diagnosis of COVID-19, may sometimes be insufficient, and the importance of clinical diagnosis, especially using imaging techniques, should not be neglected in this pandemic era. To improve the efficacy of imaging diagnosis, artificial intelligence (AI) may help greatly. While antibody tests may help with diagnosis in the early phase of the pandemic, they may become less useful with the popularization of vaccination. Dynamic monitoring of vital signs using portable mobile devices may also help to indicate disease. Novel methods for diagnosis of pneumonia, especially related to COVID-19, are in great need. This Special Issue welcomes all aspects relevant to advances in the diagnosis of pneumonia and COVID-19 and especially encourages submissions on novel diagnostic methods and techniques, the application of AI in diagnosis, and diagnosis in specific populations (e.g., younger and older people and cancer patients).

Dr. Lei Huang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diagnostics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.