Mathew RP, Jose M, Jayaram V, Joy P, George D, Joseph M, Sleeba T, Toms A. Current status quo on COVID-19 including chest imaging. World J Radiol 2020; 12(12): 272-288 [PMID: 33510852 DOI: 10.4329/wjr.v12.i12.272]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Rishi Philip Mathew, DNB, MBBS, Doctor, Department of Radiology, Rajagiri Hospital, Chunangamvelu, Aluva, Kochi 683112, Kerala, India. dr_rishimathew@yahoo.com
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Radiol. Dec 28, 2020; 12(12): 272-288 Published online Dec 28, 2020. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v12.i12.272
Current status quo on COVID-19 including chest imaging
Rishi Philip Mathew, Merin Jose, Vinayak Jayaram, Paul Joy, Danny George, Maria Joseph, Teena Sleeba, Ajith Toms
Rishi Philip Mathew, Merin Jose, Vinayak Jayaram, Paul Joy, Danny George, Maria Joseph, Teena Sleeba, Ajith Toms, Department of Radiology, Rajagiri Hospital, Kochi 683112, Kerala, India
Author contributions: Mathew RP contributed to concept and design, and manuscript preparation; Jose M contributed to manuscript preparation; Jayaram V contributed to review of literature and literature search; Joy P contributed to literature search and review of literature search; George D contributed to manuscript review; Joseph M contributed to manuscript review and language editing; Sleeba T contributed to manuscript review and language editing; Toms A contributed to manuscript review, editing and subject authority; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Rishi Philip Mathew, DNB, MBBS, Doctor, Department of Radiology, Rajagiri Hospital, Chunangamvelu, Aluva, Kochi 683112, Kerala, India. dr_rishimathew@yahoo.com
Received: October 28, 2020 Peer-review started: October 28, 2020 First decision: November 20, 2020 Revised: December 7, 2020 Accepted: December 16, 2020 Article in press: December 16, 2020 Published online: December 28, 2020
Core Tip
Core Tip: As per the recommendations of various national and international organizations, chest imaging [chest radiograph/computed tomography (CT)] is not indicated as a screening tool in asymptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients or in those with mild respiratory features unless the patients are at risk for disease progression. However, these suggestions remain a subject of debate as many studies have shown that especially chest CT can identify lung findings in patients with negative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction or even before the test becomes positive. An added advantage with chest CT is that, based on the lung findings, CT can classify patients into mild, moderate or severe disease category, as patients with more extensive pulmonary disease may benefit from follow-up CTs and potential management options, taking into consideration that the disease has the potential to cause fibrosis. Several chest CT findings typical for COVID-19 have been reported, with the most common one being multifocal ground glass opacities or consolidation usually in a bilateral, peripheral, subpleural, lower lobe and posterior distribution.
