Correlation of Chest Radiological Findings with Biochemical Markers on Oxygen Requirement in COVID-19 Patients: A Retrospective Analysis

Abstract

Background: The study is to correlate Chest X-ray scoring with the laboratory markers and to determine the oxygen requirement in COVID-19 patients. Methodology: We conducted a retrospective study in COVID confirmed patients in the age group of 18 to 80 years admitted in our health care system. At the time of admission within 24 hours, chest X-ray and blood investigations like complete blood count, C-reactive protein, Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH), d-dimers, serum ferritin were performed in all the patients. Patients data including his oxygen requirement was collected by electronic medical records. Brixia scoring system was employed to account for the extent and density of airspace opacification. The scoring of the Chest X-ray was correlated to the various blood test. Result: One hundred nine COVID confirmed cases were included in our study. There was a statistically significant correlation between Chest X-ray and age with p = 0.008; chest X-ray and d-dimers with p=0.004. Also patients requiring high oxygen therapy had significantly higher chest X-ray scores (p=0.001) Conclusion: Patient having increased oxygen requirement were found to have higher N/L Ratio, D-dimer and LDH values. Chest X-ray scoring is highly correlated with laboratory findings and disease severity and might be beneficial to speed up the diagnostic workflow in symptomatic patients.

Brixia Score as Predictor of D-Dimer Levels of COVID-19 Patients in Intensive Care Unit

“…Our study shows a significant difference between the patient's Brixia Score with D-Dimer <2 µg/mL and D Dimer ≥2 µg/mL with a p<0.001 (p<0.05) which means there is a relationship between Brixia Score and D-Dimer. This is in line with other studies that there is a significant relationship between Brixia Score with D-Dimer levels in patients, where a higher D-Dimer level is accompanied by a higher Brixia Score (Munirathnam et al, 2020;Viradanti and Kusmala, 2021;Garg et al, 2022). Some previous research reports that most COVID-19 patients have elevated D-Dimer levels due to excessive inflammatory response of lung parenchymal cells and edothelial cells in the lung blood vessels that causes dysregulation in the coagulation system.…”