A chest scan will show you a coronavirus infection sooner than the WHO-recommended test will. The results of research conducted by scientists from Wuhan lead to such conclusions.
The availability of coronavirus testing in line with real needs is now the greatest challenge facing medical services in many countries around the world. Among them – the Polish Ministry of Health. Meanwhile, it turns out that at a very early stage, COVID-19 disease can be diagnosed during chest computed tomography.
Chinese researchers have evidence that in people suspected of COVID-19, tomography can confirm the disease much earlier than the RT-PCR genetic test can do. This means that electroradiologists operating tomographs could be helpful in diagnosing the disease (in Poland and other countries).
Read: Types of coronavirus tests – how do they work and how do they differ?
A study in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the same city where the coronavirus pandemic began, is described in the journal Radiology.
During a month, between January 6 and February 6, 1014 patients were examined at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan. Both methods of diagnosis were used in all subjects: RT-PCR genetic test and computed tomography. The idea was to examine the diagnostic value of tomography and its consistency with the test recommended by WHO.
59 percent of respondents obtained positive results for COVID-19 performed with the RT-PCR diagnostic test, and in as many as 88% patients were confirmed to be infected with coronavirus on the basis of computed tomography of the chest, in which changes in the lungs characteristic for COVID-19 were observed. In 60 to 93 percent of patients had confirmed the presence of the coronavirus earlier or at the same time as the RT-PCR genetic test did.
Among patients in whom the RT-PCR test did not show the presence of coronavirus, 75 percent however, the tomography confirmed the infection. In addition, 42 percent. of cases, during treatment, improvement in health was noticed on the basis of repeat computed tomography earlier than the test confirmed this improvement.
It turns out, therefore, that computed tomography can be a faster and more sensitive tool for the diagnosis of COVID-19, and its use could reduce the waiting time for diagnosis and reduce uncertainty.
Test, test, test
It is worth adding that the World Health Organization, which monitors the situation in the affected countries, announced a few days ago that the most effective weapon at the current stage of the fight is to isolate patients who have been confirmed with COVID-19 and conduct as many tests as possible. All this to treat infected people as soon as possible and prevent further spreading of viruses.
- Read: We have a simple message for all countries: Test, Test, Test
The need for constant testing for the coronavirus was also discussed at yesterday’s (25.03) WHO press briefing. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom, among the six most important points in the fight against the pandemic, indicated “increasing the production and availability of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus tests” as one of the organization’s priorities.
- Read: Six key tasks that WHO now sets all countries to help contain the pandemic
Find out more about the coronavirus:
- How long does it take to recover from coronavirus infection? The WHO expert explains
- When will the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic end? We check what the scientists say
- Sex in an epidemic. To cultivate or is it better not to?
Have a question about the coronavirus? Send them to the following address: [email protected]. You will find a daily updated list of answers HERE: Coronavirus – frequently asked questions and answers.
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