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Remote Laboratory Management: Respiratory Virus Diagnostics
Published on: April 6, 2019
COVID-19 Smart Diagnosis in the Emergency Department: all-in in Practice
Dimitra S Mouliou1,2, Ioannis Pantazopoulos1,2, Konstantinos I Gourgoulianis2
1Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, BIOPOLIS, Larissa, Greece.
Insights
Accurate diagnosis of Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) is challenging due to varied symptoms and test results. This review proposes diagnostic algorithms for precise and timely identification of SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Area of Science:
- Infectious Diseases
- Diagnostic Medicine
- Public Health
Background:
- Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) diagnosis presents significant challenges in emergency departments and senior care facilities.
- Ambiguous clinical presentations, diverse radiologic and laboratory findings, and unreliable test results contribute to misdiagnoses, particularly in critical cases.
- Difficulties in diagnosing COVID-19 impact emergency department safety and physician responsibility.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide a comprehensive review of diagnostic information for SARS-CoV-2.
- To summarize medical history, clinical examination, radiology, and laboratory data pertinent to COVID-19 diagnosis.
- To propose diagnostic algorithms for precise and rapid COVID-19 identification.
Main Methods:
- Systematic literature review of studies published until December 2021.
- Data sourced from PubMed, Science Direct, and EMBASE databases.
- Synthesis of information on general COVID-19 diagnostic criteria.
Main Results:
- COVID-19 diagnosis is often ambiguous, requiring careful correlation of multiple data points.
- Effective diagnosis necessitates integrating medical history, physical examination, and extrapulmonary findings.
- Laboratory and radiologic data are crucial but must be interpreted alongside clinical context.
Conclusions:
- Accurate COVID-19 diagnosis requires a multifaceted approach.
- Physicians must correlate diverse clinical, laboratory, and radiologic information for prompt diagnosis.
- Proposed algorithms aim to enhance diagnostic precision and efficiency in managing suspected COVID-19 cases.
Introduction:
Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) diagnosis has been a major problem in most Emergency Departments (EDs) and other senior care facilities. Various clinical manifestations, and the several radiologic and laboratory data combined with the misleading test results to identify the virus, are responsible for certain misdiagnoses, especially in suspected cases needing urgent management and treatment. Although emergency and other front-line physicians struggle to manage COVID-19 patients, still existent cases with ambiguous diagnosis trammel the ED safety and responsibility.
Areas Covered:
This review article summarizes on a large scale the common information for the medical history, clinical examinations, radiology and laboratory data for SARS-CoV-2. We summarize the available literature using the PubMed, Science Direct and EMBASE databases published until December 2021 on the general information for COVID-19 diagnosis, and, finally, we propose algorithms for a precise and on-the-spot diagnosis the disease.
Expert Opinion:
COVID-19 diagnosis has appeared to be such ambiguous, and physicians need to correlate medical history, medical examination, potential extrapulmonary manifestations, along with laboratory and radiologic data, for a prompt COVID-19 diagnosis.
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