Passive Microwave Radiometry for the Diagnosis of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Lung Complications in Kyrgyzstan

  1. Batyr Osmonov
  2. Lev Ovchinnikov
  3. Christopher Galazis
  4. Berik Emilov
  5. Mustafa Karaibragimov
  6. Meder Seitov
  7. Sergey Vesnin
  8. Alexander Losev
  9. Vladislav Levshinskii
  10. Illarion Popov
  11. Chingiz Mustafin
  12. Turat Kasymbekov
  13. Igor Goryanin

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

The global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), could be due to limited access to diagnostic tests and equipment. Currently, most diagnoses use the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and chest computed tomography (CT). However, challenges exist with CT use due to infection control, lack of CT availability in low- and middle-income countries, and low RT-PCR sensitivity. Passive microwave radiometry (MWR), a cheap, non-radioactive, and portable technology, has been used for cancer and other diseases’ diagnoses. Here, we tested MWR use first time for the early diagnosis of pulmonary COVID-19 complications in a cross-sectional controlled trial in order to evaluate MWR use in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and healthy individuals. We measured the skin and internal temperature using 30 points identified on the body, for both lungs. Pneumonia and lung damage were diagnosed by both CT scan and doctors’ diagnoses (pneumonia+/pneumonia−). COVID-19 was determined by RT-PCR (covid+/covid−). The best MWR results were obtained for the pneumonia−/covid− and pneumonia+/covid+ groups. The study suggests that MWR could be used for diagnosing pneumonia in COVID-19 patients. Since MWR is inexpensive, its use will ease the financial burden for both patients and countries. Clinical Trial Number: NCT04568525.

Article activity feed

  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.29.20202598: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The study was approved by the Kyrgyz Republic Review Board, and informed consent was obtained from all subjects.
    Consent: The study was approved by the Kyrgyz Republic Review Board, and informed consent was obtained from all subjects.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableOverall, we have measured internal (MWR) and skin (IR) temperature on 195 subjects, 74 male and 121 females from 18 to 75 years old (Table 1).

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your code and data.

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Our study has some limitations. It was conducted in a time frame with high rates of SARS-CoV-2 infections and low prevalence of other viral pneumonia. Higher incidence of seasonal respiratory viral infections will likely decrease specificity of MWR. In, healthy individuals are underrepresented in our data set. It is also very important to consider that this methodology will be readily available for LMIC, and that it is even more convenient to use this method at the primary health care level. Primary healthcare is the first line of treatment for patients around the world, and they are the first to contact patients. MWR is a safe method for both doctors and patients, cheap to organize and, most importantly, mobile and simple. The use of MWR will reduce unnecessary costs for CT and X-ray of the lungs for both patients and the state. Microwave radiometry is radiation-free technology, which is portable, cheap and easy to use. The RTM-01-RES device combines both infrared and microwave sensors which allows to outperform existing IR cameras. The system could be used for early lung diagnostics more widely where access to CT/PCR is limited, including but not limited to It was more evidence that COVID-19 could damage the brain, heart, gut and other organs. MWR is already being used for diagnostics of different diseases [20]. It could be used for full body scan, including head (brain), wrist (cardiovascular), lung (respiratory), and guts (GI) to assess organ’s damage and eliminate risks ...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:

    IdentifierStatusTitle
    NCT04568525CompletedPassive Microwave Radiometry (MWR) and AI for COVID-19 Compl…

    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.

    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.

  2. Version published to 10.3390/diagnostics11020259
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.09.29.20202598v2 on medRxiv
  4. Version published to 10.1101/2020.09.29.20202598v1 on medRxiv