Comparison of Chest X-rays findings in COVID-19 suspected and confirmed cases at a university teaching hospital: A retrospective comparative study

Abstract

Objectives: To compare Chest X-rays findings in COVID-19 suspected and confirmed patients on RT-PCR, presented at corona filtration center, Benazir Bhutto hospital Rawalpindi. Methods: In this study, Chest radiographs of 100 COVID-19 RT-PCR positive confirmed patients were compared with 100 RT-PCR negative suspected COVID-19 patients screened at corona filtration center, Benazir Bhutto Hospital Rawalpindi from November 2020 to December 2020. Data on demographics, presenting complaints, co-morbid, lesion characteristic, distribution and attenuation, lobar involvement, pleural effusion and lymphadenopathy were collected. Associations between imaging characteristics and COVID-19 pneumonia were analyzed with univariate and multivariate logistic regression modals. Results: Chest X-rays findings revealed bilateral lung consolidation with peripheral and diffuse distribution, involving middle and lower lobe to be statistically significant (p<0.05) between RT-PCR positives and negative patients. Peripheral distribution was associated with an 11.08-fold risk in COVID-19 positive patients than diffuse distribution. Middle lobe involvement had four folds risk and lower lobe involvement had 11.04 folds risk in COVID-19 cases as compared to upper lobe involvement. Consolidation had 2.6 folds risk in COVID-19 positive cases. Conclusions: Bilateral, peripheral distribution of middle and lower lobes ground glass haze or consolidation with no pleural effusion is significantly related to COVID-19 pneumonia. Overlapping imaging features of the infectious and non-infectious COVID mimickers can be further excluded by detailed clinical evaluation and further radiological workup. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.1.4624 How to cite this:Durrani M, Shahid A, Kalsoom U, Inam-ul-Haq, Yousaf A, Naveed S. Comparison of Chest X-rays findings in COVID-19 suspected and confirmed cases at a university teaching hospital: A retrospective comparative study. Pak J Med Sci. 2022;38(1):76-83.  doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.1.4624 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.