CHEST RADIOGRAPHY ROLE IN DIAGNOSIS AND SEVERITY OF COVID-19 INFECTION

*Dr. Kedar Athawale

ABSTRACT

CoVid-19 infection has been main cause of increased number of patients to all the medical colleges including ours for last six months. The reason can be varied like fear in patients to severity of the symptoms. It was observed that around 80 percent of patients reporting to the registration suspected or had the infection. Avoiding the infection spread is the only way to keep it in control as no vaccine is in site as of today. The main task before the medical practitioner is to diagnose the infection as soon as possible, know the severity of it and treat the infection at the earliest. Radiology plays an important role in diagnosing and knowing the severity of the infection. Much of the literature available as of today has focused on chest CT manifestations of COVID-19 (Zhou et al.[1] Chung et al.[2]). In countries like us due to infection control issues related to patient transport to CT centers, the inefficiencies introduced in CT room decontamination, and lack of CT availability, chest radiography will likely be the most commonly utilized modality for identification and follow up of lung abnormalities due to the CoVid-19 infection. The American College of Radiology notes that CT decontamination required after scanning COVID-19 infected patients does disrupt radiological service availability and it suggests that chest radiography may be considered to minimize the risk of cross-infection (American College of Radiology[3]). The objective of my study is to diagnose and evaluate the severity of CoVid-19 patients using Chest radiograph. This is a retrospective study in which 200 patients attending outdoor facility of our hospital were examined. The findings concluded that -  A normal chest radiograph does not exclude covid-19 infection.  There are variety of radiographic patterns in which the infection can manifest. The most common is multifocal peripheral lung changes of ground glass opacity bilaterally.  Abnormal chest radiograph points to severe disease and thus acts as one of the indicator to start more aggressive treatment. RALE {Radiographic Assessment of Lung Edema} score proved to be helpful in knowing the severity of the infection.

Keywords: COVID-19, Chest radiograph, Ground glass opacities, Pneumonia.