HRCT Evaluation in COVID 19 Patients and Correlation with Disease Progression, Clinical Outcome

Our Study aimed to determine the diagnostic accuracy of HRCT chest in COVID 19 and to evaluate the performance of HRCT chest in early diagnosis and management and correlation with disease severity. This is a retrospective study done at Government general hospital(tertiary care center), Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. The Present Study was on 120 hospitalized patients who underwent HRCT CHEST with symptoms of COVID 19. A total of 120 patients of laboratory - confirmed COVID-19 test by RT-PCR at Government general hospital, Kakinada was assessed. Among the confirmed cases, most of the patients in the fifth and sixth decade of age group with a mean age of 53.65 years. There was a male preponderance (69.25% male and 30.8% female). Out of the total analyzed patients, 87 patients (72.5%) were symptomatic, among them fever (87.35%), cough (82.7%), shortness of breath (36.78%), and sore throat (20.69%) were the most common presenting clinical manifestations. A few patients (17.24%) also had other symptoms like headaches, chest pain, pain abdomen, alteredsensorium, etc. 60.8% of patients had some underlying co -morbid disease in the sample population. The most prevalent co-morbidities were Diabetes mellitus (52.05%), Hypertension (43.8%), Stroke (12.3 %), CAD (10.9%), and others (17.8%) like hypothyroidism, anemia, COPD, etc. The pathological lung changes were evaluated by HRCT imaging and by assigning with CT severity score. Proportional GGO was higher (63.37%) in the early phase and it was lower (22.2%) in the later stage of disease. HRCT is helpful in the diagnosis, treatment planning, and followup of covid 19 patients. HRCT chest in COVID-19 patients had significant diagnostic and prognostic importance as positive CT findings more prominent in symptomatic patients and comorbid patients.CT imaging was found to be useful in predicting a patient?s clinical recovery or disease progression.