ULTRASONOGRAPHY COMPARED TO CT SCAN FOR THE ASSESEMENT OF SEVERITY IN PATIENTS WITH COVID-19 PNEUMONIA: EXPERIENCE OF A MAJOR TERTIARY REFERRAL HOSPITAL IN INDIA

Abstract

A study was conducted to assess the severity of COVID-19 pneumonia by ultrasonography compared to computed tomography. 50 patients, older than 18 years, referred to a major territory care centre in India between June and December 2021 with any two of the three criteria: fever, Spo2<94% on room air, and shortness of breath were studied. Patients proven to have COVID-19 pneumonia with either RT-PCR/RAT or Computed tomography scan were excluded from the study. Lung ultrasound was performed by two experienced physicians using a portable ultrasound device. A modied Lung Ultrasound Score for COVID-19 was compared with a computed tomography scan performed using a single inspiratory phase in a commercial multi-detector computed tomography scanner. Results: The correlation coefcient between the lung ultrasound score and the computed tomography severity score (r) was 0.79 (strong correlation) with a p value <0.00001 (signicant as p value <0.05). In patients with moderate to severe disease, the correlation was stronger. Conclusions: Our study showed that there is a good correlation between the lung ultrasound score and Computed tomography severity score. Lung ultrasound may help as an alternative method for diagnosing and isolating COVID-19 pneumonia patients during the peaks of the pandemic. Lung ultrasound score exhibited similar accuracy compared with chest computed tomography in the detection of lung abnormalities in COVID-19 patients.