Usefulness of chest CT for COVID-19 suspected patients visited ED during COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction At present, Korea has one of the largest outbreak of COVID-19, bringing the country\'s total infection to more than 30,000. Meanwhile a major cluster of infections in Seoul was identified during February 21?26, in an 800-bed university hospital in Eunpyeong-gu, northwest Seoul, linking 14 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases. With COVID-19 pandemics, many medical institutions are repeatedly shutting down, and in-medical spread is a very big problem. Radiologic characteristics of COVID-19 which had not been fully understood are especially important for diagnosing and predicting prognosis. Chest CT examination plays an important role in the initial diagnosis of the COVID-19. Material & Method Since April 2020, we have been conducting chest CT at the same time for all patients who visit the ED and conduct CT examinations with the consent of the patients, and this study has conducted retrospective analysis on patients from April to May 2020. Result A total of 1,321 patients performed chest CT, excluding 59 who did not perform x-rays. Of these, 271 (21.5%) were COVID-19 suspected patients, and 138 (10.9%) were diagnosed with pneumonia. Among COVID-19 suspected patients, 85 (31.4%) were diagnosed with pneumonia, 27% of them could not be diagnosed with x-rays. There are no significant differences in the clinical data, such as past history, symptoms and laboratory findings between the x-ray positive pneumonia and negative pneumonia groups. Fortunately all of COVID-19 suspected patients were confirmed negative for COVID-19 PCR test. Conclusion It is difficult to filter out COVID-19 suspected patients with a chest x-ray and interviews. Considering the turn-over of the isolation room and safety in the ED, the chest CT may be considered useful examination.