Retrospective analysis of the application of CT scan in the emergency department to screen clinically asymptomatic COVID-19 before hospital admission.
Emerg Radiol
; 29(2): 235-241, 2022 Apr.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34997894
BACKGROUND: The necessity to identify and isolate COVID-19 patients to avoid intrahospital cross infections is particularly felt as a challenge. Clinically occult SARS-CoV-2 infection among patients admitted to the hospital is always considered a risk during the pandemic. The aim of our study is to describe the application of CT scan to reveal unexpected COVID-19 in patients needing hospital admission. METHOD: In our emergency department, we prospectively enrolled adult patients needing hospital admission, without symptoms suspected of COVID-19, and showing negative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) swab test. CT scan was performed to diagnose clinically occult COVID-19 pneumonia. All the exams were read and discussed retrospectively by two expert radiologists and assigned to one of 4 exclusive diagnoses: typical (typCT), indeterminate (indCT), atypical (atyCT), negative (negCT). The clinical characteristics and final diagnoses were described and compared with the results of CT scans. RESULTS: From May 25 to August 18, 2020, we prospectively enrolled 197 patients. They showed 122 negCT, 52 atyCT, 22 indCT, and 1 typCT. Based on the CT imaging, the prevalence of suspected clinically occult COVID-19 pneumonia was 11.6% (23 patients). None had confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 infection after the hospital stay. Nineteen patients had negative serial RT-PCR while in 4 cases, the infection was excluded by clinical follow-up or appearance of positivity of RT-PCR after months. CONCLUSION: Our descriptive analysis confirms that CT scan cannot be considered a valid tool to screen clinically occult COVID-19, when the asymptomatic patients need hospitalization for other conditions. Application of personnel protections and distancing among patients remains the best strategies to limit the possibility of intrahospital cross-infections.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
COVID-19
Tipo de estudio:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Adult
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Emerg Radiol
Año:
2022
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Italia
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos