Effect of age on computed tomography findings: Specificity and sensitivity in coronavirus disease 2019 infection

Table 1 Diagnostic accuracy measures of the computerized tomography according to age

Age		CT	RT-PCR		Sensitivity, % (95%CI)	Specificity, % (95%CI)
			COVID-19 negative	COVID-19 positive
Age categories	0-9	Negative	3	8	11.11 (0.28-48.25)	23.08 (5.04-53.81)
		Positive	10	1
	10-19	Negative	0	3	50.00 (11.81-88.19)	0.00 (0.00-28.49)
		Positive	11	3
	20-29	Negative	10	9	60.87 (38.54-80.29)	25.64 (13.04-42.13)
		Positive	29	14
	30-39	Negative	5	10	66.67 (47.19-82.71)	18.52 (6.30-38.08)
		Positive	22	20
	40-49	Negative	9	2	91.30 (71.96-98.93)	32.14 (15.88-52.35)
		Positive	19	21
	50-59	Negative	4	3	90.32 (74.25-97.96)	13.33 (3.76-30.72)
		Positive	26	28
	60-69	Negative	3	2	92.59 (75.71-99.09)	8.82 (1.86-23.68)
		Positive	31	25
	70-79	Negative	4	3	81.25 (54.35-95.95)	11.11 (3.11-26.06)
		Positive	32	13
	80+	Negative	4	0	100.00 (79.41-100.0)	33.33 (9.92-65.11)
		Positive	8	16
Overall		Negative	42	40	77.90 (71.15-83.72)	18.26 (13.49-23.87)
		Positive	188	141

Diagnostic accuracy measures (sensitivity and specificity) were calculated for computed tomography when real-time reverse transcription PCR was gold standard. CT: Computed tomography; RT-PCR: Real-time reverse transcription PCR; COVID-19: Coronavirus disease 2019; CI: Confidence interval.

Table 2 Diagnostic accuracy of findings across the entire population

Findings	Sensitivity, %	Specificity, %	Diagnostic accuracy, %
Lymphadenopathy	60.3	44.7	46.9
Pleurisy	78.3	45.6	48.0
Pericardial effusion	80.0	40.0	40.0
Pleural thickening	19.3	86.1	48.0
Peripheral location	46.5	53.6	49.6
Posterior location	65.1	22.0	48.5
Bilateral location	69.3	22.0	51.4
Ground glass	84.4	33.7	62.5
Consolidation	45.9	71.1	56.7
Air bronchogram	31.2	81.3	52.8
Vascular enlargement	53.2	65.7	58.5
Bronchial dilatation	50.5	68.7	58.3
Halo sign	28.9	75.3	48.9
Reverse halo sign	1.4	95.8	42.1
Nodularity	37.2	68.1	50.5
Air bubble	16.1	87.3	46.8
Subpleural band	27.1	70.5	45.8
Reticular density	11.9	88.6	45.0
Crazy paving appearance	11.0	97.6	48.4
Fibrosis	15.6	90.3	47.7

Table 3 Frequency of findings according to age groups

Findings	Age group 1, %	Age group 2, %	Age group 3, %	P value
Lymphadenopathy	0	8.1	29.8	0.001
Pleurisy	0	2.2	20.8	0.002
Pericardial effusion	0	0.5	3.1	0.092
Pleural thickening	3.0	12.7	27.5	0.005
Peripheral location	36.4	61.5	65.1	0.04
Posterior location	59.1	67.1	74.6	0.09
Bilateral location	50.0	62.1	88.5	0.07
Ground glass	51.5	69.1	94.7	0.007
Consolidation	39.4	29.5	52.7	0.02
Air bronchogram	36.4	18.2	35.1	0.001
Vascular enlargement	30.3	38.2	59.5	0.03
Bronchial dilatation	30.3	36.7	53.4	0.005
Halo sign	24.2	26.8	24.2	0.055
Reverse halo sign	0	2.3	3.8	0.06
Nodularity	36.4	34.1	35.9	0.067
Air bubble	0	0	0.8	0.04
Subpleural band	12.1	21.8	42.8	0.002
Reticular density	0	9.1	18.3	0.001
Crazy paving appearance	3.0	4.1	13.0	0.02
Fibrosis	0	2.7	33.8	0.001