A novel chest CT severity score in COVID-19 and its correlation with severity and prognosis of the lung disease: A retrospective cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

HRCT chest has a high sensitivity in the diagnosis of patients with COVID-19 infection. Through our study, we intend to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and inter-reader variability of a semi-quantitative CT severity score, a novel parameter designed for risk stratification and prognostication of COVID-19 pneumonia with clinical staging of disease.

Methods

It was a single-center retrospective analysis performed on an original cohort of 4180 symptomatic patients with the suspicion of SARS-CoV-2 interstitial pneumonia. Out of 4180, a total of 4004 patients with COVID-19 were confirmed by an RT-PCR. We used an HRCT chest severity score (CT-SS) to evaluate the COVID-19 disease burden on the initial scan obtained at admission. The data were analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics Version 22.0 Release 2013.

Results

Our study subjects demonstrated the most common clinical features fever, cough, dyspnea, and body aches. Raised CRP levels (CRP >0.5 mg/dL) were found in 81.86% and increased D-dimer levels (>500 ng/mL) were found in 92.3% of patients. The most common radiological findings of the disease included ground-glass opacities, observed in 98.8%. Our study has a sensitivity of 89.2%, a specificity of 94.8%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 90.6%, and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 94%.

Conclusion

As per our findings, this novel CT scoring system might aid in the risk stratification and the short-term prognostication of patients suffering from COVID-19 pneumonia. This will eventually help in curtailing the extensive burden on the healthcare system amid the current pandemic.

SUBMITTER: Younus S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9476364 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature