Correlation between chest CT severity scores and clinical and biochemical parameters of COVID-19 pneumonia

The COVID-19 pandemic, which first appeared in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and spread rapidly around the globe, continues to be a serious threat today. Rapid and accurate diagnostic methods are needed to identify, isolate and treat patients as soon as possible because of the rapid contagion of COVID-19. In the present study, the relation of the semi-quantitative scoring method with computed tomography in the diagnosis of COVID-19 in determining the severity of the disease with clinical and laboratory parameters and survival of the patients were investigated along with its value in prognostic prediction.

A total of 277 adult patients who were followed up in the chest diseases clinic because of COVID-19 pneumonia between 11.03.2020 and 31.05.2020 were evaluated retrospectively in the present study. Both lungs were divided into five regions in line with their anatomical structures, and semiquantitative radiological scoring was made between 0 and 25 points according to the distribution of lesions in each region. The relations between semiquantitative radiological score and age, gender, comorbidity, and clinical and laboratory parameters were examined.

A significant correlation was detected between advanced age, lymphopenia, low oxygen saturation, high ferritin, D-dimer, and radiological score in the univariate analysis performed in the present study. The cut-off value of the semiquantitative radiology score was found to be 15 (AUC: 0.615, 95% CI: 0.554-0.617, p = 0.106) in ROC analysis. The survival was found to be better in cases with a radiology score below 15, in Kaplan-Meier analysis (HR: 4.71, 95% CI: 1.43-15.46, p < 0.01). In the radiological score and nonparametric correlation analyses, positive correlations were detected between CRP, D-dimer, AST, LDH, ferritin, and pro-BNP, and a negative correlation was found between partial oxygen pressure and oxygen saturation (p = 0.01, r = 0.321/0.313/0.362/0.343/0.313/0.333/-0.235/-0.231, respectively) CONCLUSION: It was found that the scoring system that was calculated quantitatively in thorax HRCTs in Covid-19 patients is a predictive actor in determining the severity and prognosis of the disease in correlation with clinical and laboratory parameters. Considering patients who have a score of 15 and above with semiquantitative scoring risky in terms of poor prognosis and short survival and close follow-up and early treatment may be effective to reduce mortality rates.