Chest CT imaging as an essential tool to detect the severity of COVID-19 infection in patients and its correlation with RT-PCR

Abstract

Since its emergence in 2019, RT-PCR is a standard test for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 viral infection (COVID-19). Chest-CT scans are the preferred most common routine test to determine the spread and severity of the disease. The present study aims to demonstrate a comparative analysis of chest CT and RT-PCR as diagnostic tests for COVID-19 detection.In this prospective single-center study a total of 979 patients (Male= 614, female= 365) from Tumkur, Karnataka (India) who were suspected of novel coronavirus infection underwent both chest CT and RT-PCR assay.Patients with positive RT-PCR and abnormalities in chest CT images were identified. The patients with negative RT-PCR and positive chest-CT images and vice versa were screened for the accuracy of both techniques. Out of 979 patients, 674 (68.85%) patients had positive CT index scores, whereas 613 (62.61%) patients had positive RT-PCR tests. Most of the patients (47%) were from the age group 36-55 years with most of the population having hypertension (8.27%) and diabetes (6.44%). Corad score revealed 88.36% of patients (865) with high infection. In patients with negative RT-PCR reports (31.15%; 305/979), a positive CT index was observed in 7.25% of patients indicating higher sensitivity to this technique. A chest CT scan is superior in sensitivity for the detection of COVID-19 than that of RT-PCR. The CT scan can be used asa confirmatory diagnostic test for COVID-19 suspects whose RT-PCR test results are negative.