The sensitivity and specificity of chest CT in the diagnosis of COVID-19
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The sensitivity and specificity of chest CT in the diagnosis of COVID-19 Anita Kovács 1 & Péter Palásti 1 & Dániel Veréb 1 & Bence Bozsik 1 & András Palkó 1 & Zsigmond Tamás Kincses 1 Received: 5 July 2020 / Revised: 1 September 2020 / Accepted: 24 September 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Purpose The identification of patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 is highly important to control the disease; however, the clinical presentation is often unspecific and a large portion of the patients develop mild or no symptoms at all. For this reason, there is an emphasis on evaluating diagnostic tools for screening. Chest CT scans are emerging as a useful tool in the diagnostic process of viral pneumonia cases associated with COVID-19. This review examines the sensitivity, specificity, and feasibility of chest CT in detecting COVID-19 compared with real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Methods Sensitivity and specificity of chest CT in detecting COVID-19 in its various phases was compared using RT-PCR as a gold standard. A “reverse calculation approach” was applied and treated chest CT as a hypothetical gold standard and compared RT-PCR to it point out the flaw of the standard approach. Results High sensitivity (67–100%) and relatively low specificity (25–80%) was reported for the CT scans. However, the sensitivity of RT-PCR was reported to be modest (53–88%), hence cannot serve as an appropriate ground truth. The “reverse calculation approach” showed that CT could have a higher specificity (83–100%) if we consider the modest sensitivity of the RTPCR. Conclusions The sensitivity and specificity of the chest CT in diagnosing COVID-19 and the radiation exposure have to be judged together. Arguments are presented that chest CT scans have added value in diagnosing COVID-19 especially in patients, who exhibit typical clinical symptoms and have negative RT-PCR results in highly infected regions. Key Points • CT scans have higher specificity if we take into account the low sensitivity of the RT-PCR. • Avoid chest CT as a sole diagnostic approach for COVID-19 infection. • Patients who had negative RT-PCR result with typical clinical symptoms in highly infected regions or with close contact of COVID-19-infected patients; the use of chest CT is warranted. Keywords COVID-19 . Multidetector computed tomography . Real-time polymerase chain reaction . Sensitivity . Specificity
Abbreviations COVID-19 GGO RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2
Introduction Coronavirus disease 2019 Ground-glass opacity Real-time polymerase chain reaction Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
* Zsigmond Tamás Kincses [email protected]; https://www.uszeged.hu/szakk/radiology/kezdolap 1
Department of Radiology, Albert Szent-Györgyi Clinical Center, University of Szeged, Semmelweis u. 6, Szeged 6725, Hungary
A novel coronavirus, named the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was identified in 2019 in China. The disease caused by the highly contagious virus is called the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It s
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