Variations In Spectrum Of Covid-19 Ct Findings And Its Severity Scoring In A Tertiary Care Hospital Of Bahawalpur, Southern Punjab Pakistan.

BACKGROUND: Recently the Coronavirus pandemic presented with different manifestations in different parts of the world, both on clinical examinations and on imaging. CT Scanning (CT Scan) chest is used for detailed evaluation of the different characteristic patterns determining the depth of disease. The study is aimed to assess the variations in spectrum of Covid-19 CT findings and relating severity (CT Severity Score) with the Clinical Symptoms in Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, patients referred to radiology department from outdoor for COVID screening were included from 1st May to 30th June 2020. Mean age range of patients was calculated, while presenting complaints and co-morbidities were tabulated in frequencies and percentages after analysis. Severity of symptoms and CT findings were correlated with biochemical and haematological tests. RESULTS: Patients' age range from 25 to 85 years with 62% males and 38% females. Statistically no significant difference was observed in CTSS on gender basis. As sensitivity of RT PCR is about 70%, negative cases cannot be considered disease free and this is seen in this study as CT findings suggestive of COVID are seen in these patients. Using 40-point CT-SS, 11 patients had a score of >19 with severe diseases, while 14 patients had common disease with a score range of 11-18 and 35 patients had <10 score with mild or no symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, a spectrum of patchy ground glass opacities, bilateral peripheral predominantly lower lung consolidations were observed. Quantitative analysis of inflammatory process as occurring in lungs in Coronavirus Disease 2019, using 40-point CTSS scoring on Imaging could provide a timely and objective approach towards identifying patients requiring intensive care and hospitalisation.

Role of Serum Markers in Combination as a Diagnostic Tool for Acute Pulmonary Embolism: Cross-Sectional Study.

Background and objective Acute pulmonary embolism (APE) is a serious cardiovascular emergency, mainly secondary to deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which causes death. The goal of the current study was to determine the levels of different serum markers in combination among patients with and without acute pulmonary embolism in order to use them as a diagnostic tool. Methodology A sample of 96 patients was kept with a 90% power of study and a 5% level of significance in the current study. It was carried from January to June 2020 in the Department of Medicine, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, after the hospital's Ethical Committee approval. Written informed consent was taken. Serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer, fibrinogen, and Troponin-I between both groups were done once enrolled. SPSS software, version 25 (IBM Corp. Armonk, NY) was used to analyze the collected data. Results Patients with acute pulmonary embolism had a mean age of 50.4 ± 10.4 years. All serum markers were significantly raised in patients suffering from acute pulmonary embolism with a p-value of <0.05. Conclusion We concluded that all these serum markers can be used together as a tool in making the correct diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism in our setup.