Diagnostic utility of additional whole-chest CT as part of an acute abdominal pain CT imaging pathway during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Clin Radiol
; 75(8): 592-598, 2020 08.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-591561
ABSTRACT
AIM:
To evaluate the diagnostic utility of additional whole-chest computed tomography (CT) in identifying otherwise unheralded COVID-19 lung disease as part of an acute abdominal pain CT imaging pathway in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIALS ANDMETHODS:
Consecutive patients (n=172) who underwent additional whole-chest CT via a COVID-19 acute abdominal pain CT imaging pathway between 27 March and 3 May 2020 were evaluated in this retrospective single-centre study. Chest CT examinations were graded as non-COVID-19, indeterminate for, or classic/probable for COVID-19. CT examinations in the latter two categories were further divided into one of three anatomical distributions (lung base, limited chest [below carina], whole chest [above carina]) based on location of findings. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results and clinical features of COVID-19 were assessed to determine if COVID-19 was clinically suspected at the time of CT referral.RESULTS:
Twenty-seven of the 172 (15.7%) patients had CT features potentially indicative of COVID-19 pneumonia, 6/27 (3.5%) demonstrating a classic/probable pattern and 21/27 (12.2%) demonstrating an indeterminate pattern. After correlation with clinical features and RT-PCR 8/172 (4.7%) were defined as COVID-19 positive, of which only 1/172 (0.6%) was clinically unsuspected of COVID-19 at the time of CT referral. All COVID-19 positive cases could be identified on review of the lung base alone.CONCLUSION:
Whole-chest CT as part of an acute abdominal pain CT imaging pathway has a very low diagnostic yield for our cohort of patients. All COVID-19-positive patients in our cohort were identified on review of the lung bases on the abdominal CT and this offers an alternative imaging approach in this patient group.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Radiography, Thoracic
/
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
/
Abdominal Pain
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Betacoronavirus
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
Clin Radiol
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.crad.2020.06.002
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