Study of Biochemical Parameters and Chest CT Score for Diagnosis and Prognosis of COVID-19 Pneumonia Patients

ABSTRACT

Introduction: COVID-19 pneumonia is a recently discovered, rapidly spreading acute respiratory syndrome. Chest CT has a 97% sensitivity for the diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia after a mean interval of 5 days. The typical chest CT findings in COVID-19 pneumonia are bilateral, peripheral, and basal predominant GGOs with or without consolidation and Broncho vascular thickening. The chest CT severity score of lung inflammation and clinical parameter analysis can assess COVID-19 disease and its severity. Aims: Authors evaluated correlation of biochemical parameters with Chest CT Score for diagnosis and prognosis of COVID-19 pneumonia patients. Materials and Methods: A total of 350 Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia were included in the present study. We collected clinical and laboratory data for analysis, derived from an electronic medical record system, from June 2020 to July 2021 of patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection by RT - PCR as well as chest HRCT scan. All the patients D-Dimer, LDH, Procalcitonin and ferritin levels were also collected. The statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS 21.0. Results: A significantly elevated levels of D-Dimer (1346±124.60), LDH (768±58.74), Procalcitonin (9.89± 0.97) and Ferritin (567±47.19) observed in all the subjects. The D-Dimer, LDH, Procalcitonin and ferritin was found to be positively correlated with CT severity score (p<0.0001). Conclusion: This study concluded that chest CT severity score can aid in predicting COVID-19 disease outcome, when CT Score is correlated with laboratory investigations useful for diagnosis as well as prognosis of COVID-19 pneumonia.