Comparison of Chest Ultrasound and Standard X-Ray Imaging in COVID-19 Patients

Comparison of Chest Ultrasound and Standard X-Ray Imaging in COVID-19 Patients

Evgenii Shumilov, Ali Seif Amir Hosseini, Golo Petzold, Hannes Treiber, Joachim Lotz, Volker Ellenrieder, Steffen Kunsch, Albrecht Neesse

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic poses new challenges for the medical community due to its large number of patients presenting with varying symptoms. Chest ultrasound (ChUS) may be particularly useful in the early clinical management in suspected COVID-19 patients due to its broad availability and rapid application. We aimed to investigate patterns of ChUS in COVID-19 patients and compare the findings with results from chest X-ray (CRX). Materials and Methods 24 patients (18 symptomatic, 6 asymptomatic) with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 by polymerase chain reaction underwent bedside ChUS in addition to CRX following admission. Subsequently, the results of ChUS and CRX were compared. Results 94% (n=17/18) of patients with respiratory symptoms demonstrated lung abnormalities on ChUS. ChUS was especially useful to detect interstitial syndrome compared to CXR in COVID-19 patients (17/18 vs. 11/18; p

2020

coronavirus, covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, x-ray, Chest ultrasound

10.1055/a-1217-1603

Ultrasound International Open

Georg Thieme Verlag KG

Medicine, Medical physics. Medical radiology. Nuclear medicine