Association between high resolution computed topography chest severity scores of COVID positive patients with their clinical severity in the COVID care hospital, Jhalawar, Rajasthan

Abstract

Background: Novel coronavirus is a new emerging infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 that has led to a global pandemic. Early diagnosis, treatment and prognosis is essential to manage the disease. The present study was undertaken to determine the relationship between HRCT (high resolution computed topography) severity scores with clinical severity of COVID positive patients.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on reports of HRCT scan of RT-PCR positive patients admitted in COVID care hospital of JMCH. A pretested questionnaire was used to collect all the relevant information including clinical symptoms and post COVID symptoms.Results: CT scores of 236 patients in mild, moderate and severe category were 111 (47%), 83 (35.2%) and 42 (17.8%) respectively. The mean age group was 52.35 years with male preponderance showing a number of 173 (73.3%). The most common clinical symptoms of COVID positive patients in mild, moderate, severe category were cough (82%) and fever (74.8%); cough (95.2%) and SOB (90.40%) and SOB (97.6%) and cough (85.70%) respectively followed by other symptoms. The mean interval of days between initial positive to subsequent RT-PCR negative results in CT severity scores of mild, moderate, severe categories were 5.22, 6.22, 7.12 days respectively.Conclusions: The study suggests that chest CT scoring can add in predicting disease diagnosis and outcome significantly.