COVID-19 pneumonija - značaj drugih dijagnostičkih pristupa osim PCR testiranja - prikaz slučaja

Abstract

The infection by SARS-CoV-2 virus leads to the development of COVID-19 disease, which can manifest asymptomatically, or cause pneumonia caracterised by mild to severe symptoms, with potential fatal outcome. The gold diagnostic standard for COVID-19 disease is the PCR analysis of biological materials sampled by nasopharyngeal swab. However, despite the high sensitivity of this diagnostic method, our clinical experience has shown that in some cases, false-negative PCR test results can be obtained. This paper reports a case of a patient with developed pneumonia that could be related to COVID-19 disease based on the clinical picture, laboratory and radiological findings, but two nasopharyngeal swabs were negative for SARS-CoV-2 after PCR analysis. The patient was treated with the therapy recommended for COVID-19, achieving both clinical and radiological improvement, which indicates that the infection by SARS-CoV-2 virus was probably the UN-derlying factor of of the inflammatory process in the lung parenchyma. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of other diagnostic methods in diagnosing COVID-19, not only PCR testing.