Diagnostic value of chest CT in Iranian patients with suspected COVID-19

BACKGROUND: In the current COVID-19 pandemic, there is a rising need for a rapid and reliable diagnostic tool We hypothesized that chest computed tomography (CT) can be a potential alternative for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic value of chest CT and RT-PCR in Iranian patients with suspected COVID-19 METHODS: In a retrospective, single-center case series, 568 consecutive hospitalized or outpatient patients with suspected COVID-19 underwent chest CT and/or RT-PCR testing at Imam Reza Hospital, the tertiary teaching hospital of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in Iran, from February 21 and March 28, 2020 RESULTS: The sensitivity of chest CT for signifying COVID-19 was 64% (95% CI: 56%-71%) on the basis of positive RT-PCR results as a standard method CT imaging also had a specificity of 77% (95% CI: 73%-81%), positive predictive value of 35% (95% CI: 0 31-0 39), negative predictive value of 66% (95% CI: 0 61-0 69), positive likelihood ratio of 2 79 (95% CI: 2 26-3 46), and negative likelihood ratio of 0 47 (95% CI: 0 38-0 57) CONCLUSION: Chest CT had higher specificity in the diagnosis of COVID-19 than that of the previous studies Therefore, it can play a crucial role in the early diagnosis Similar to the previous studies, the typical CT features were patchy ground-glass opacities as well as peripheral aspects of the lungs consolidations