Evaluation of the effect of respiratory triage on requesting positive CT scans of the lung in both peak and non-peak coronavirus

Document Type : Conference Paper

Authors

1 Office of Vice-Chancellor for Global Strategies and International Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Radiation Science, The School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4 School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introducion: The new 2019 coronavirus in most patients manifests as an uncomplicated respiratory disease and in some patients it can lead to pulmonary complications, septic shock and in a few cases lead to the death of the patient. Given that the patientchr('39')s first encounter with the emergency department is the hospital triage unit, it is important to quickly identify and isolate patients suspected of having a coronavirus. In order to evaluate the effect of respiratory triage on referral of corona positive patients to the medical imaging department, in this study, the rate of positive CT scans performed in the first and fourth peaks (with triage) and a two-month period without Widespread (no triage) was performed.
Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional descriptive study that was performed in three stages in Baharloo Hospital. Patients first underwent respiratory triage in the two peak periods, but triage was removed in the period without outbreaks. CT scans taken by a radiologist were performed to check for the presence or absence of corona based on the degree of lung involvement. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS 22 software through descriptive statistics and t-test.
Results: In all three stages, the percentage of people without pulmonary involvement was higher than those with pulmonary involvement, so more care should be taken when requesting a CT scan by a physician. In addition, in the presence of triage, negative CT scans in individuals are reduced. When we encounter the pandemic and epidemic conditions and the high level of radiation and no pulmonary involvement in some cases, CT scan should not be used as the only initial diagnostic test for screening for patients with coronavirus

Keywords


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