Incidental chest computed tomography findings in asymptomatic Covid-19 patients. A multicentre Indian perspective

Rochita V Ramanan; Anagha R Joshi; Akash Venkataramanan; Senthur P Nambi; Rashmi Badhe

doi:10.4103/ijri.IJRI_479_20

Indian Journal of Radiology and Imaging, Table of Contents

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Radiol Imaging 2021; 31(S 01): S45-S52
DOI: 10.4103/ijri.IJRI_479_20

Review Article

Incidental chest computed tomography findings in asymptomatic Covid-19 patients. A multicentre Indian perspective

Rochita V Ramanan

Departments of Radiology and Infectious Diseases, Apollo Hospitals Chennai

,

Anagha R Joshi

Department of Radiology, Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and General Hospital, Sion

,

Akash Venkataramanan

Department of Intern, Madras Medical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

,

Senthur P Nambi

Department of Infectious Diseases, Apollo Hospitals Chennai

,

Rashmi Badhe

Department of Radiology, Global Hospitals, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

› Author Affiliations

Abstract

In December 2019, an unprecedented outbreak of pneumonia of unknown etiology emerged called COVID-19. A vast number of people affected by this disease are asymptomatic and yet contagious with up to 79% of COVID-19 infections reportedly caused by undocumented infections. Surprisingly, these asymptomatic subjects are also known to quietly harbor pneumonia changes on CT scans. RT-PCR, the definitive test for COVID-19, maybe false negative in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia on CT. Incidental findings highly suspicious of COVID-19 pneumonia on CT chest of asymptomatic patients may increase as the community transmission of the virus rises and isolation restrictions are released. It is advisable to be aware of its appearances and the challenges associated with it.

Keywords

Asymptomatic COVID-19 patients - false positive RT-PCR - incidental COVID-19 pneumonia on CT - RT-PCR COVID-19

Full Text

References

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