COVID-19 Reporting and Data System (CO-RADS) for Assessment of Pulmonary Involvement and CT Severity Score in Predicting Disease Severity

Abstract

Objective: To assess diagnostic accuracy of HRCT for COVID pneumonia keeping RT-PCR as reference standard. Study Design and Setting: A retrospective cohort study, carried out in of Radiology Department of KRL hospital, Islamabad from January 2021 to May 2021. Methodology: A total of 199 patients referred to Radiology Department for HRCT examination with clinical suspicion of COVID pneumonia were enrolled. Average age was 54yrs ± 14. PCR results of patients were retrieved from MIS. HRCT chest scan report assessed pulmonary involvement and categorized according to CORADS on a scale from 1 to 5. CT severity score was also assessed on 20-segment model for scoring. Statistical analysis was carried using SPSS software. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, positive predictive value and diagnostic accuracy were calculated. Results: The sensitivity was calculated to be 99.05%, the specificity was36.84%, the positive predictive value was 86.25%, the negative predictive value was 90.63% and diagnostic accuracy was 88.61%" For CORADS categories 1, 2 and 6, CT was in good agreement with the PCR results. Maximum numbers of patients were from age bracket 51-60 yrs. Correlation of gender with disease showed more prevalence in males and CTSS was not different in genders. Conclusion: HRCT chest has high sensitivity and negative predictive value for diagnosis of COVID pneumonia on the basis of CORADS reporting scheme. However it has low specificity. Disease has more prevalence in male gender. The most severely affected age bracket was 51-60 years.