ABSTRACT
Introduction: Here, we evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on utilization of cardiothoracic imaging studies. Methods: We queried our radiology record system to retrospectively identify numbers of specific key cardiothoracic imaging studies for five years prior and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistical analysis was performed to evaluate changes in the number of exams in 2020 and 2021 compared to 2019. Results: Five-year retrospective analysis demonstrated progressive increases in nearly all cross-sectional studies. In 2020, daily chest radiograph utilization decreased with an overall number of daily radiographs of 406 (SD = 73.1) compared to 480 per day in 2019 (SD = 82.6) (p < 0.0001). Portable radiograph utilization was increased in 2020 averaging 320 (SD = 68.2) films daily in 2020 compared to 266 (SD = 29.1) in 2019 (p < 0.0001). Utilization of thoracic CT was decreased during the pandemic, with 21.8 (SD = 12.9) studies daily compared to 52.0 (SD = 21.4) (p < 0.0001) studies daily in 2019. Cardiac imaging utilization was also substantially decreased in 2020 compared to 2019, averaging a total of 3.8 (SD = 3.2) versus 10.8 (SD = 6.6) studies daily and 0.88 (SD = 1.7) versus 2.5 (SD = 2.3) studies daily for CT and MRI, respectively. Evaluation of cardiothoracic imaging for the subsequent 18 months after New York's entry to phase I recovery in June 2020 demonstrated that by one year after the emergence of COVID-19 imaging utilization had recovered to prepandemic levels. Cardiac imaging continued to increase throughout the chronic phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching almost twice the prepandemic levels by the end of 2021. Conclusion: COVID-19 has had far-reaching effects on medicine and public health. Here, we demonstrate decreases in all cross-sectional cardiothoracic imaging studies, closely mirroring findings in other fields during the height of the pandemic, which have since rebounded.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic acutely disrupted all facets of healthcare, with future implications that are expected to resonate for many years. We investigated the effect of the pandemic on neuroimaging volume, hypothesizing that all representative studies would experience a reduction in volume, with those typically performed in the inpatient setting (noncontrast enhanced CT head and CTA head/neck) taking longer to recover to pre-pandemic volumes compared to studies typically performed in the outpatient setting (MR brain with and without and MR lumbar spine without). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively queried our institution's radiology reporting system to collect weekly data for 1 year following the World Health Organization declaration of a pandemic (11 March 2020-9 March 2021) and compared them to imaging volumes from the previous year (11 March 2019-9 March 2020). We subsequently analyzed quarterly data (e.g., first quarter comparison: 3/11/2020-6/9/2020 was compared to 3/11/2019-6/9/2019). RESULTS: All studies experienced decreased volume during the first quarter of the year following onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with noncontrast enhanced CT head failing to recover to pre-pandemic volumes. CTA head/neck actually surpassed pre-pandemic volume by the second quarter of the year. MRI brain w/wo and MRI lumbar spine without recovered to baseline volume by the second quarter. CONCLUSION: Noncontrast enhanced CT head did not recover pre-pandemic imaging volume. CTA head/neck volume initially decreased, however volume increased above pre-pandemic levels during the second quarter; this finding may be attributable to a prothrombotic state in COVID-19 patients.