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Sensitivity of Chest CT for COVID-19: Comparison to RT-PCR.

In a series of 51 patients with chest CT and real-time polymerase chain reaction assay (RT-PCR) performed within 3 days, the sensitivity of CT for 2019 novel coronavirus infection was 98% and that ...


Introduction
In December 2019, an outbreak of unexplained pneumonia in Wuhan [1]  patients who had negative RT-PCR for COVID-19 at initial presentation despite chest CT findings typical of viral pneumonia [3]. The purpose of this study was to compare the sensitivity of chest CT and viral nucleic acid assay at initial patient presentation.

Materials and Methods
The retrospective analysis was approved by institutional review board and patient consent was waived. Patients at Taizhou Enze Medical Center (Group) Enze Hospital were evaluated from January 19, 2020 to February 4, 2020. During this period, chest CT and RT-PCR (Shanghai ZJ Bio-Tech Co, Ltd, Shanghai, China) was performed for consecutive patients who presented with a history of 1) travel or residential history in Wuhan or local endemic areas or contact with individuals with individuals with fever or respiratory symptoms from these areas within 14 days and 2) had fever or acute respiratory symptoms of unknown cause.
In the case of an initial negative RT-PCR test, repeat testing was performed at intervals of 1 day or more. Of these patients, we included all patients who had both noncontrast chest CT scan (slice thickness, 5mm) and RT-PCR testing within an interval of 3 days or less and who had an eventual confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 infection by RT-PCR testing (Figure 1).
Typical and atypical chest CT findings were recorded according to CT features previously described for COVD-19 (4,5). The detection rate of COVID-19 infection based on the initial chest CT and RT-PCR was compared. Statistical analysis was performed using McNemar Chi-squared test with significance at the p <.05 level.

Discussion
In our series, the sensitivity of chest CT was greater than that of RT-PCR (98% vs 71%, respectively, p<.001). The reasons for the low efficiency of viral nucleic acid detection may include: 1) immature development of nucleic acid detection technology; 2) variation in detection rate from different manufacturers; 3) low patient viral load; or 4) improper clinical sampling. The reasons for the relatively lower RT-PCR detection rate in our sample compared to a prior report are unknown (3). Our results support the use of chest CT for screening for COVD-19 for patients with clinical and epidemiologic features compatible with COVID-19 infection particularly when RT-PCR testing is negative.