The importance of utilizing CT images at early stages for COVID-19 diagnosis – a Scoping Review

Abstract

Overcoming the challenges posed by the severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) has been one of the most recurrent themes when it comes to public health in a global context. Since March 2020, when it reached the stage of a pandemic by the World Health Organization, the world has been unfolding itself to overcome the challenges posed by this disease. As time goes by, new variants are demanding an even greater effort from health services to overcome the impacts caused by the disease. Several diagnostic methods have been developed with the aim of detecting the main signs of the disease as early as possible. The accelerated deterioration of the health status of patients affected by this disease reinforces the need for a conscious and timely action, in order to allow a rapid therapeutic intervention to propitiate a more favorable clinical outcome for the patient. However, each of the different methods developed over the past two years has advantages and disadvantages. Thus, the objective of this article is to present a scoping review of the literature currently available based on the criteria established by Amog et all (2) and published in the “Journal of Clinical Epidemiology” – volume 147, aiming to systematically summarize the existing knowledge and, based on the literature, discuss the importance as well as the advantages and disadvantages of adopting computed tomography images in the diagnosis of patients infected by COVID-19.