Increasing Demand for Chest CT Due to COVID-19 in Brazil

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of diagnostic imaging examinations in the Brazilian unified healthcare system (SUS)

“…Naidich et al [13] showed that chest CT angiography increased among inpatients in a large healthcare system in the US in the first 16 weeks of 2020. Increased chest CT use in accordance with the local epidemic spreading was also reported in French [14] and Italian [16] radiological centers and by other authors in Brazil [15] . The increased use of chest CT during the COVID-19 pandemic is not unforeseen as the severe forms of the disease are largely associated to the extent of pulmonary involvement and chest CT has a recognized role in assessing severity and progression of the disease.…”

“…Mammography, nuclear medicine, and magnetic resonance imaging were among the most affected modalities [10] , [11] , [12] . Nevertheless, the use of imaging examinations for the diagnosis and management of COVID-19, particularly chest computed tomography (CT) increased [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] .…”