Low Dose Chest CT and Lung Ultrasound for the Diagnosis and Management of COVID-19

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity to use low- and non-radiating chest imaging techniques on a large scale in the context of an infectious disease, which has never been done before. Previously, low-dose techniques were rarely used for infectious diseases, despite the recognised danger of ionising radiation. Method: To evaluate the role of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) and lung ultrasound (LUS) in managing COVID-19 pneumonia, we performed a review of the literature including our cases. Results: Chest LDCT is now performed routinely when diagnosing and assessing the severity of COVID-19, allowing patients to be rapidly triaged. The extent of lung involvement assessed by LDCT is accurate in terms of predicting poor clinical outcomes in COVID-19-infected patients. Infectious disease specialists are less familiar with LUS, but this technique is also of great interest for a rapid diagnosis of patients with COVID-19 and is effective at assessing patient prognosis. Conclusions: COVID-19 is currently accelerating the transition to low-dose and “no-dose” imaging techniques to explore infectious pneumonia and their long-term consequences.

Inter-Observer Agreement between Low-Dose and Standard-Dose CT with Soft and Sharp Convolution Kernels in COVID-19 Pneumonia

“…In addition to gold-standard imaging (CT and LDCT), chest radiography (CXR), lung ultrasound (LUS), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can also be used for COVID-19associated pneumonia detection [41,42]. LUS has emerged as a radiation-free alternative to CT and LDCT, but its practical applicability is controversial.…”

Diagnostic Modalities in Critical Care: Point-of-Care Approach

“…This necessitated diagnostic methods providing the fast diagnosis of potential complications and disease progress. Especially lung US presents a possible, if not even superior alternative to computed tomography scan or pCXR for the evaluation of COVID-19 pneumonia, especially in a resource-limited settings and vulnerable groups (pregnant, children) [ 166 , 167 , 168 , 169 , 170 , 171 ]. POC diagnostics decrease the need for patient relocations and thereby the potential risk of transport related adverse events and further infection transmission while saving time.…”

Ruling Out Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Patients with Pneumonia: The Role of Blood Cell Count and Lung Ultrasound

“…CT is more sensitive than NAAT for COVID-19 diagnosis but also much less specific [9]. Low-dose non-contrast CT is reliable in detecting COVID-19 pneumonia in daily practice, with a significant reduction in radiation dose [11]. Rapid NAAT and low-dose chest CT can now rapidly and accurately confirm or rule out COVID-19 infection [6,11].…”

“…Low-dose non-contrast CT is reliable in detecting COVID-19 pneumonia in daily practice, with a significant reduction in radiation dose [11]. Rapid NAAT and low-dose chest CT can now rapidly and accurately confirm or rule out COVID-19 infection [6,11]. Lung ultrasound (LUS) is also of great interest for rapid COVID-19 screening due to its low cost, widespread availability, ease of use, and reduced risk of spreading the infection [10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…Rapid NAAT and low-dose chest CT can now rapidly and accurately confirm or rule out COVID-19 infection [6,11]. Lung ultrasound (LUS) is also of great interest for rapid COVID-19 screening due to its low cost, widespread availability, ease of use, and reduced risk of spreading the infection [10][11][12][13][14][15]. Single or confluent interstitial artifactual signs, defined as B-lines, represent the alveolar-interstitial syndrome on LUS evaluation [13][14][15].…”