Spectrum of HRCT Chest Findings in RT-PCR Positive Asymptomatic COVID-19 Patients at a COVID Designated Hospital in Nepal

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Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic is grappling the world with the surge of infection time and again. Clinicians are trying to justify the ethics of public health care. Asymptomatic COVID-19 cases are going undocumented and most of them practice self-isolation. Studies have revealed significant radiological changes among RT-PCR positive asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to characterized chest CT findings of asymptomatic RT-PCR-positive patients in one of the COVID-designated hospitals in Nepal.  Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study where RT-PCR positive COVID-19 asymptomatic-close-contacts were subjected to HRCT chest. The HRCT images were evaluated by two radiologists for (a) characterizing the parenchymal involvement and (b) distribution of the involvement. The CT severity score (0-25) was calculated following the semi- quantitative scoring system which depends on the visual assessment of five lung lobes.  Results: Out of 43, 26 (60.5%) participants had positive Chest CT scan findings consistent with COVID pneumonia. Bilateral lesions were present in 65% and 77% had multifocal lesions. The ground-glass opacities (92%), mixed (ground-glass opacities and consolidation pattern) (30.7%), and consolidation only (34.6%) were common chest CT findings. The median CT score was 3.5 (IQR; 2-6).   Conclusion: Most of the RT-PCR positive COVID-19 asymptomatic patients had CT scan changes in lungs but with lower median CT score value.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.25.21259523: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: The study is conducted between October 2020 and December 2020 with ethical approval from institutional review board and consent of the patient and HRCT scan were acquired in the Hitachi Multidetector 128 slice CT scanner.
    Consent: The study is conducted between October 2020 and December 2020 with ethical approval from institutional review board and consent of the patient and HRCT scan were acquired in the Hitachi Multidetector 128 slice CT scanner.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.


    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.


    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.