In:
Egyptian Journal of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, Vol. 53, No. 1 ( 2022-12)
Kurzfassung:
Chest CT scan has an important role in the diagnosis and management of COVID-19 infection. A major concern in radiologic assessment of the patients is the radiation dose. Research has been done to evaluate low-dose chest CT in the diagnosis of pulmonary lesions with promising findings. We decided to determine diagnostic performance of ultra-low-dose chest CT in comparison to low-dose CT for viral pneumonia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results 167 patients underwent both low-dose and ultra-low-dose chest CT scans. Two radiologists blinded to the diagnosis independently examined ultra-low-dose chest CT scans for findings consistent with COVID-19 pneumonia. In case of any disagreement, a third senior radiologist made the final diagnosis. Agreement between two CT protocols regarding ground-glass opacity, consolidation, reticulation, and nodular infiltration were recorded. On low-dose chest CT, 44 patients had findings consistent with COVID-19 infection. Ultra-low-dose chest CT had sensitivity and specificity values of 100% and 98.4%, respectively for diagnosis of viral pneumonia. Two patients were falsely categorized to have pneumonia on ultra-low-dose CT scan. Positive predictive value and negative predictive value of ultra-low-dose CT scan were respectively 95.7% and 100%. There was good agreement between low-dose and ultra-low-dose methods (kappa = 0.97; P 〈 0.001). Perfect agreement between low-dose and ultra-low-dose scans was found regarding diagnosis of ground-glass opacity (kappa = 0.83, P 〈 0.001), consolidation (kappa = 0.88, P 〈 0.001), reticulation (kappa = 0.82, P 〈 0.001), and nodular infiltration (kappa = 0.87, P 〈 0.001). Conclusion Ultra-low-dose chest CT scan is comparable to low-dose chest CT for detection of lung infiltration during the COVID-19 outbreak while maintaining less radiation dose. It can also be used instead of low-dose chest CT scan for patient triage in circumstances where rapid-abundant PCR tests are not available.
Materialart:
Online-Ressource
ISSN:
2090-4762
DOI:
10.1186/s43055-021-00689-6
Sprache:
Englisch
Verlag:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Publikationsdatum:
2022
ZDB Id:
2583928-7
