Abstract
Reports detailing the clinical characteristics, viral load, and outcomes of patients with normal initial chest CT findings are lacking. We sought to compare the differences in clinical findings, viral loads, and outcomes between patients with confirmed COVID-19 who initially tested negative on chest CT (CT negative) with patients who tested initially positive on chest CT (CT positive). The clinical data, viral loads, and outcomes of initial CT-positive and CT-negative patients examined between January 2020 and April 2020 were retrospectively compared. The efficacy of viral load (cyclic threshold value [Ct value]) in predicting pneumonia was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the curve (AUC). In total, 128 patients underwent initial chest CT (mean age, 54.3 ± 19.0 years, 50% male). Of those, 36 were initially CT negative, and 92 were CT positive. The CT-positive patients were significantly older (P < .001) than the CT-negative patients. Only age was significantly associated with the initial presence of pneumonia (odds ratio, 1.060; confidence interval (CI), 1.020-1-102; P = .003). In addition, age (OR, 1.062; CI, 1.014–1.112; P = .011), fever at diagnosis (OR, 6.689; CI, 1.715–26.096; P = .006), and CRP level (OR, 1.393; CI, 1.150–1.687; P = .001) were significantly associated with the need for O2 therapy. Viral load was significantly higher in the CT-positive group than in the CT-negative group (P = .017). The cutoff Ct value for predicting the presence of pneumonia was 27.71. Outcomes including the mean hospital stay, intensive care unit admission, and O2 therapy were significantly worse in the CT-positive group than in the CT-negative group (all P < .05). In conclusion, initially CT-negative patients showed better outcomes than initially CT-positive patients. Age was significantly associated with the initial presence of pneumonia, and viral load may help in predicting the initial presence of pneumonia.
Highlights
Several reports have shown that chest CT yielded positive findings suggesting COVID-19 pneumonia even in patients with false-negative real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerasechain reaction results [1–4]
Several studies have shown that rRT-PCRconfirmed COVID-19 may be associated with normal chest CT findings in early-stage infection
This study presents the differences in the clinical findings, viral load, and outcomes between patients with confirmed COVID-19 who initially presented normal chest CT findings compared with those who initially had positive CT findings
Summary
Several reports have shown that chest CT yielded positive findings suggesting COVID-19 pneumonia even in patients with false-negative real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerasechain reaction (rRT-PCR) results [1–4]. Several studies have shown that rRT-PCRconfirmed COVID-19 may be associated with normal chest CT findings in early-stage infection. Ai et al reported that 3% (21 of 601) of patients with positive rRT-PCR results had normal chest CT findings [5]. In the study by Bernheim et al [6], 56% (20 of 36) of patients with confirmed COVID-19 showed normal CT findings 0–2 days after symptom onset. Fang et al reported normal chest CT findings 3 days after symptom onset in 2% (1 of 51) of patients [7]. A recent study reported that 25% of patients with asymptomatic COVID-19 had no abnormal findings on chest CT [8]
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