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A Review on Applicable and Available Paraclinical Methods for Diagnosis of Coronavirus Disease-19
Mohammad Rafiee1, Farahnaz Parsaei2, Sajjad Rahimi Pordanjani3
1Department of Hematology and Blood Banking, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Insights
Accurate diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is crucial for patient survival and preventing transmission. This review examines available laboratory and radiological diagnostic methods, highlighting the strengths and limitations of each for effective COVID-19 detection.
Area of Science:
- * Infectious Diseases
- * Medical Diagnostics
- * Public Health
Background:
- * The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak necessitates effective diagnostic strategies.
- * Timely and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19 is vital for patient outcomes and controlling disease spread.
- * This study reviews current diagnostic methods for COVID-19.
Purpose of the Study:
- * To review and evaluate applicable diagnostic methods for COVID-19.
- * To identify the strengths and limitations of existing diagnostic tests.
- * To inform optimal diagnostic approaches for COVID-19.
Main Methods:
- * Systematic literature search of Web of Science, PubMed, and Iranian articles.
- * Keywords used: laboratory, radiological, tests, coronavirus, COVID-19.
- * Focused on diagnostic methods for coronavirus disease 2019.
Main Results:
- * Real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is the gold standard but has limitations (false negatives, low sensitivity).
- * Chest computed tomography (CT) scans offer higher sensitivity but lower specificity for COVID-19 diagnosis.
- * Combining RT-PCR, chest CT, and clinical features is recommended; validation of other sensitive, low-cost tests is needed.
Conclusions:
- * Early and accurate COVID-19 diagnosis improves survival and halts transmission.
- * Efforts are needed to mitigate false-negative test results.
- * Development of rapid and reliable diagnostic tests for COVID-19 is essential.
Background:
The recent outbreak by a novel coronavirus originated from Wuhan, China in 2019, and is progressively spreading to other countries. Timely diagnosis of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) improves the survival of the patients and also prevents the transmission of the infection. In this study, we reviewed the applicable and available methods for the diagnosis of COVID-19.
Methods:
For the review, we systematically searched Web of Science, PubMed, and Iranian articles that were published about COVID-19 diagnostic methods with a combination of the key terms: laboratory, radiological, tests, coronavirus.
Results:
Although the current gold standard diagnostic test for this virus is real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the occasional false-negative and the low sensitivity of the test should not be underestimated. A chest computed tomography (CT) scan is another diagnostic test for COVID-19, with higher sensitivity but low specificity. A combination of sensitive RT-PCR with a chest CT scan together with the clinical features are highly recommended for the proper diagnosis. Notably, there are some other sensitive and low-cost tests for evaluation of COVID-19 infection, but their validation should be approved.
Conclusion:
Since early and accurate diagnosis of the viral disease could improve the survival rate of the patients, and halt the transmission chain, it is not surprising that tremendous attempts should be made to reduce the limitations of the tests leading to the false-negative results and to find a rapid test for the diagnosis of COVID-19.
