Sensitivity of Chest Computed Tomography Scan in Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2: A Meta-analysis Study

Abstract

Background: Early diagnosis of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is crucial for disease treatment and control. Compared to Real-time Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR), chest computed tomography (CT) scan imaging may be a more practical and rapid method to diagnose and assess COVID-19, especially in the pandemic. Aim: To conduct a meta-analysis study regarding the sensitivity of chest CT scan in detecting Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Patients and Methods: Using MEDLINE database (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/), Google Scholar and Scopus, we conducted a systematic search to identify relevant studies published within the last 6 months (from November 2019 till 20th of April 2020), appropriate articles were accessed in full text to determine eligibility and extract data by two reviewers. Results: Fifteen retrospective studies were included, and their results were pooled in this meta-analysis. Chest CT scan showed positive finding in 2714 out of 3130 scanned patients. Sensitivity of the chest CT scan for diagnosis of COVID-19 could be extracted from all studies ranging from 0.61-0.99. There was considerable heterogeneity across studies. There was no evidence of publication bias. Conclusion: Chest CT scan can provide a speedy and effective method to early recognize suspicious COVID-19 cases, contributing to reduction of cross infection due to its great sensitivity. But we should be cautious during interpreting these results since established available information about COVID-19 are rapidly evolving all over the world, in addition, most of the published information are incomplete.