Correlation between Chest CT Severity Scores and the Clinical Parameters of Adult Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia

Radiol Res Pract. 2021 Jan 6:2021:6697677. doi: 10.1155/2021/6697677. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Purpose: Our aim is to correlate the clinical condition of patients with COVID-19 infection with the 25-point CT severity score by Chang et al. (devised for assessment of ARDS in patients with SARS in 2005).

Materials and methods: Data of consecutive symptomatic patients who were suspected to have COVID-19 infection and presented to our hospital were collected from March to April 2020. All patients underwent two consecutive RT-PCR tests and had a noncontrast HRCT scan done at presentation. From the original cohort of 1062 patients, 160 patients were excluded leaving a total number of 902 patients.

Results: The mean age was 44.2 ± 11.9 years (85.3% males, 14.7% females). CT severity score was found to be positively correlated with lymphopenia, increased serum CRP, d-dimer, and ferritin levels (p < 0.0001). The oxygen requirements and length of hospital stay were increasing with the increase in scan severity.

Conclusion: The 25-point CT severity score correlates well with the COVID-19 clinical severity. Our data suggest that chest CT scoring system can aid in predicting COVID-19 disease outcome and significantly correlates with lab tests and oxygen requirements.