Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). As of April 17, 2020, the total number of cases all over the world read as 2,182,823 positive cases with 145,551 deaths and 547,679 recovered cases. In India, the total number of affected cases has alarmingly increased up to 13,430, crossing the 10 thousand mark with 11,214 active cases and 1768 recovered cases. There have been multiple studies and reviews published regarding the nature of the disease, its clinical symptoms and their progression, as well as findings on chest radiography, computed tomography, and positron emission computed tomography. A systematic literature search of the PubMed database was performed on April 8, 2020, using the suitable keywords and publications on novel coronavirus infection were also searched for in the WHO database. Only those articles published in the year 2020 were included. Data were collected, extracted, and tabulated for systematic reviewing from 26 original articles and 4 case series. The typical radiological findings on computed tomography for COVD 19 were ground-glass opacity with and without consolidation, isolated consolidation, air bronchogram, crazy paving, and interlobular septal thickening with subpleural lines. With the progression of the disease, other atypical radiological findings are noted, such as pulmonary atelectasis, peribronchial thickening, pleural effusion, pericardial effusion, mediastinal lymphadenopathy, reverse halo or atoll sign, and tree in bud appearance with bronchiectasis. Computed tomography proved as a useful tool for screening COVID 19 cases to delineate the status and severity of lung pathology.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [1]
A systematic literature search of PubMed database was performed on April 8, 2020 using the keywords “(((((( (((“COVID 19”[Title/Abstract] OR “COVID 19”[Title/ Abstract]) OR “COVID 19”[Title/Abstract]) OR “SARSCoV-2”[Title/Abstract]) OR “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2”[Title/Abstract]) OR “ncov*”[Title/ Abstract]) OR “corona virus”[Title/Abstract]) OR “coronavirus”[Title/Abstract]) OR “coronavirus”[MeSH Terms]) OR “sars virus”[MeSH Terms]) AND ((((((((((((“radiolog*” [Title/Abstract] OR “radiograph*”[Title/Abstract]) OR “Xray”[Title/Abstract]) OR “ct”[Title/Abstract]) OR “computed tomograph*”[Title/Abstract]) OR “MRI”[Title/Abstract]) OR “magnetic resonance imaging”[Title/Abstract]) OR “sonography” [Title/Abstract]) OR “ultrasound”[Title/ Abstract]) OR “ultrasonograph*”[Title/Abstract]) OR “radiography”[MeSH Terms]) OR “tomography, x-ray computed”[MeSH Terms]) OR “ultrasonography”[MeSH Terms])
Studies included in this systematic review were those published in the perspective of novel coronavirus 2019 disease and included computed tomography as the diagnostic intervention
Summary
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [1]. As the primary site of involvement of novel coronavirus 2019 infection is the respiratory tract, both chest radiography and computed tomography are go-to modalities to screen the suspected cases. When both are compared in terms of accuracy, computed tomography fares better than the former, reinforcing its importance in both initial screenings of suspected cases and follow-up scans of such cases with the progression of timeline [7 - 9]. The existing information regarding the dreaded disease is diffused and seemingly incomplete, owing to its scattered nature.
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