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Differences between Ultrasonography and Computed Tomography for Diagnosis of Coronavirus Disease and Influenza A Pneumonia
19 Pages Posted: 20 Jan 2022 Publication Status: Preprint
Abstract
Objective: The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) coincided with the season of influenza A pneumonia, a common respiratory infectious disease. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the differences between ultrasonography and computed tomography (CT) for the diagnosis of the two diseases.
Methods: Patients with COVID-19 and influenza A infection hospitalized at our hospital were included. The patients were examined by ultrasonography every day. The CT examination results within one day before and after the day with the highest ultrasonography score were selected as the controls. The coincidence rate and differences between ultrasonography and CT results in the two groups were compared.
Results: There was no difference between the ultrasonography and CT scores (p=0.307) for COVID-19, while there was a difference between ultrasonography and CT scores for influenza A pneumonia (p=0.024). The ultrasonography score for COVID-19 was higher than that for influenza A pneumonia (p=0.000), but there was no difference between the CT scores (p=0.830). For both diseases, there was no difference in ultrasonography and CT scores between the left and right lungs; there were differences between the CT scores of upper and middle lobes as well as between the upper and lower lobes of the lungs; however, there was no difference between the lower and the middle lobes of the lungs.
Conclusion: Ultrasonography is equivalent to the gold standard CT for diagnosing and monitoring the progression of COVID-19. Because of its convenience in use, it has important application value. Furthermore, the diagnostic value of ultrasonography for COVID-19 is higher than that for influenza A pneumonia.
Funding: This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (grant number 2020YFC0844900). This part of work was supported by Scientific Research Project of Beijing Youan Hospital, CCMU, 2019 (BJYAYY-GG2019-05).
Declaration of Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing You An Hospital affiliated to the Capital Medical University ([2020]020). The consents were signed by all patients.
Keywords: Coronavirus disease 2019, ULTRASONOGRAPHY, Computed Tomography, influenza A pneumonia
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