Use of radiographic features in COVID-19 diagnosis: Challenges and perspectives

Abstract

The rapid surge and wide spread of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) overshadows the entire medical industries worldwide. The stringent medical resources hinder the diagnostic capacity globally, while 84 000 of new cases confirmed within a single day of April 14, 2020. Real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with is the current first-line diagnosis, but the false-negative rate remains concerned. Radiographic technologies and tools, including computed tomography (CT) and chest X-ray, were applied for initial screening and follow-up, from which the tools provide detail diagnosis with specific pathologic features for staging and treatment arrangement. Although the radiographic imaging is found less sensitive, numerous CT-positive patients were not screened out by RT-PCR initially and later confirmed as COVID-19 positive. Besides, the shortage of sampling kits and the longer turn-over time of PCR examinations in some areas were noticed due to logistic issues and healthcare burden. In this review, we will discuss the challenges and the future perspectives of using radiographic modalities for COVID-19 diagnosis in view of securing human lives amid the crisis.

Diagnosing COVID‐19 in the Emergency Department: A Scoping Review of Clinical Examinations, Laboratory Tests, Imaging Accuracy, and Biases

“…74 With the exception of one outlier, the reported sensitivity of single-view chest X-ray for COVID-19 ranges from 33% to 60%. [75][76][77][78][79] Chen et al 80 represent the outlier reporting 100% accuracy of chest X-ray early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently available COVID-19 chest X-ray studies do not report specificity or reliability.…”

“…Currently available COVID-19 chest X-ray studies do not report specificity or reliability. 75 CT of the Chest Computed tomography findings suggesting COVID-19 include ground glass opacity (often bilateral) and peripheral predominant lesions without mediastinal adenopathy or pleural effusions, although these findings represent nonspecific manifestations of acute lung injury associated with numerous infectious and noninfectious etiologies. 81,82 Incidental findings consistent with COVID-19 are observed on CT of the chest in patients without respiratory symptoms.…”

Pneumonia Classification Using Deep Learning from Chest X-ray Images During COVID-19

“…The symptoms of COVID-19 include dry cough, fatigue, fever, septic shock, organ failure, anorexia, dyspnea, myalgias, sputum secretion severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), etc. [ 11 – 14 ]. The pandemic caused by SAR-CoV-2 is alarming due to the fact that there is no approved drug or vaccine [ 15 ].…”

Perspectives on the Economics of the Environment in the Shadow of Coronavirus

“…Deschenes and Enrico 2009;Gasparrini et al 2015) and can be confused with COVID-19 (e.g. Ai et al 2020;Chen et al 2020) More patients with symptoms of unrelated respiratory diseases could be tested during cold weather The prevalence of other weather-sensitive respiratory diseases might make false-positive results more likely, especially if only radiographic imaging is used, since it is possible to confuse these diseases for COVID-19 (e.g. Ai et al 2020;Chen et al 2020) The incidence of other pathologies (e.g.…”