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Review
. 2020 Dec 28;12(12):272-288.
doi: 10.4329/wjr.v12.i12.272.

Current status quo on COVID-19 including chest imaging

Rishi Philip Mathew  1 , Merin Jose  2 , Vinayak Jayaram  2 , Paul Joy  2 , Danny George  2 , Maria Joseph  2 , Teena Sleeba  2 , Ajith Toms  2
Affiliations
Review

Current status quo on COVID-19 including chest imaging

Rishi Philip Mathew et al. World J Radiol. .

Abstract

With each day the number coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases continue to rise rapidly and our imaging knowledge of this disease is expeditiously evolving. The role of chest computed tomography (CT) in the screening or diagnosis of COVID-19 remains the subject of much debate. Despite several months having passed since identifying the disease, and numerous studies related to it, controversy and concern still exists regarding the widespread use of chest CT in the evaluation and management of COVID-19 suspect patients. Several institutes and organizations around the world have released guidelines, recommendations and statements against the use of CT for diagnosing or screening COVID-19 infection and advocating its use only for those cases with a strong clinical suspicion of complication or an alternate diagnosis. However, these guidelines and recommendations are in disagreement with majority of the widely available literature, which strongly favour CT as a pivotal tool in the early diagnosis, management and even follow-up of COVID-19 infection. This article besides comprehensively reviewing the current status quo on COVID-19 disease in general, also writes upon the current consensus statements/recommendations on the use of diagnostic imaging in COVID-19 as well as highlighting the precautions and various disinfection procedures being employed world-wide at the workplace to prevent the spread of infection.

Keywords: COVID-19; Computed tomography; Coronavirus disease; Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; SARS-CoV-2; Viral pneumonia.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chest radiograph of 64-year-old coronavirus disease 2019 patient showing peripheral reticular infiltrates and consolidation predominantly in a lower lobe distribution, typical for coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Axial chest computed tomography images of a 72-year-old male patient showing multifocal, predominantly peripheral and subpleural based ground glass opacities arranged in a “crazy paving pattern” involving both lungs and all lobes typical for coronavirus disease 2019 (A-D).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Chest radiograph (A) and axial chest computed tomography (B) images of a 52-year-old male infected with coronavirus disease 2019 showing peripheral and subpleural ground glass opacities in the posterior basal segments of both lower lobes along with peripheral vascular tree-in-bud sign (circle).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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