RELEVANCE OF CHEST X-RAY IN COVID-19 DIAGNOSIS

Abstract

Background: Radiological imaging also plays an important role in diagnosing and severity assessment of the disease. British Society of Thoracic Imaging released guidance for reporting computed tomography as well as chest radiographs. We conducted this study to assess the sensitivity and specicity of chest radiograph for COVID-19 patients attending a COVID Hospital in India. Material And Methods: This was a retrospective study in which suspected COVID-19 patients attending HNB Base Hospital, Srinagar, Uttarakhand from April 2021 to June 2021 who underwent RTPCR and chest radiographs were taken. Chest X-rays were classied according to the BSTI chest X-ray report Performa. This Performa was then compared with the RTPCR reports of the patients to calculate the sensitivity and specicity. Results: Comparison of the four chest X-ray groups according to the BSTI guidance with RT-PCR status was done. It revealed that almost 85.48% of the normal chest X-ray group were RT-PCR positive and 30.68% of the chest X-rays that had classic or probable COVID-19 features came out to be RT-PCR negative. 75% of patients who were grouped in Non-COVID-19 in accordance with their chest x-ray features were RT-PCR positive. Discussion And Conclusion: The specicity (40.66%) and sensitivity (50.62%) of the BSTI guidance for chest x-ray are low as shown in our study. The main drawback of this study is that we have kept RT-PCR as the gold standard.