A team of Mount Sinai doctors became the first in the U.S. to analyze CT scans of patients diagnosed with coronavirus and said that they were able to identify specific patterns in the lungs as markers of the disease as it developed over time.
The team believes that its new insight will lead to a quicker diagnosis in patients who are suspected of COVID-19 symptoms and help determine which patients with inconclusive results should be kept in isolation.
The team, which published their findings in Radiology, received the scans of 94 patients in China who had been admitted to four hospitals between Jan. 18 and Feb. 2.
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In a group of 33 patients who received CT scans three to five days after reporting symptoms, the team observed patterns of “ground-glass opacities,” which became more round in shape and dense.
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The physicians noted that patients may present with nonspecific symptoms which can be difficult to diagnose as coronavirus and that an X-ray does not measure lung disease as well as a CT scan. They also said tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could take several days to confirm, making the CT scan analysis a viable option for suspected patients… .
