Rational Use of CT-Scan for the Diagnosis of Pneumonia: Comparative Accuracy of Different Strategies.

ABSTRACT: Diagnosing pneumonia in emergency departments is challenging because the accuracy of symptoms, signs and laboratory tests is limited. As a confirmation test, chest X-ray has significant limitations and is outperformed by CT-scan. However, obtaining a CT-scan in all cases of suspected pneumonia has significant drawbacks. We used a cohort of 200 consecutive elderly patients admitted to the hospital for suspected pneumonia to build a simple prediction score, which was used to determine indication for performing a CT-scan. The reference diagnosis was adjudicated by experts considering all available data, including evolution until discharge and CT scan in all patients. Results were externally validated in a second cohort of 319 patients. Pneumonia was confirmed in 133 patients (67%). Area under

SUBMITTER: Garin N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6518125 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature