- Chest CT Imaging Features of COVID-19 Patients from Study #1

CT Imaging Features of COVID-19 Patients

Unlike pathogenic laboratory testing which produces a significant amount of false-negatives while still being a time-consuming method, Machine Learning models  can display radio-logical and image patterns via CT chest scans. 3D CT volume can detect the virus's transmission by using a lung-region 3D CT scan which is segmented and fed into a 3D deep neural network to predict the infection rate.

Large-Scale Analysis of CT Scans: 

Coronavirus pneumonia tends to affect the entire lung as opposed to other viral pneumonia affecting small parts. As per respiratory clinicians and radiologists, the 3 features  of coronavirus pneumonia are ground-glass opacities, consolidation, and pleural effusion seen in the chest of the CT scans.

COVID-19 pneumonia vs. other viral pneumonia

CNN is a strong utility that is used for classifying images. Built on layers organized by three dimensions. The neurons of a specific layer do not attach to a full set of neurons to the later layer. The output is a diminished vector of probability scores to produce a model of COVID-19 classification.

Convolutional neural networks

- 103 patients with lung CTs were chosen for the study
- The CT scans from 107 healthy patients were taken (control group)
- Figures show the relationship between the volume of blood vessels and its cross-sectional area, where the area of a circle is measured by taking a slice of the blood vessel
- The volume of blood vessels in healthy patients was lower compared to COVID-19 patients
- However, there is a slight increase in blood vessel volume in healthy patients when the cross section area of the blood vessels is between ~1.25 and 3.5 mm^2
- The increase in blood vessel volume in COVID-19 patients could be due to inflammation in the blood vessels to increase oxygen uptake by the lungs


HCRT Use In Studying The Pulmonary Blood Vessels In COVID-19 Patients

Sensitivity and specificity of CT scans varies with COVID-19, therefore cannot be the determinant factor in diagnosing infection. Produce a medical image using multiple X-ray measurements from different angles of the patient's chest.

University of California, Santa Cruz

Imaging tests cannot be used as the only reliable diagnostic tool to detect infection due to its lack of sensitivity. However, it can be useful in medical settings with limited resources where the virus is prevalent.

- Chest Radiograph
- Ultrasound
- Computed Tomography

Radiographics Test / CT Imaging for COVID-19

Harahwa, T. A., Yau, T. H., Lim-Cooke, M., Al-Haddi, S., Zeinah, M., & Harky, A. (2020). The optimal diagnostic methods for COVID-19. Diagnosis, 0(0). doi:10.1515/dx-2020-0058

The optimal diagnostic methods for COVID-19

CT Scans

X-Ray on patient chests are chest radiographs and are not as effective as CT scans. Radiograph abnormalities found in 10-12 days are similar to those found in a CT scan 6-11 days in.

Chest radiograph

Diagnostic ultrasounds use high-frequency sound waves to produce imagery of structure in a patient's body. Lung ultrasound of COVID-19 patients show irregular pleural line and lesions in the lung. Ultrasounds have a 68-78% sensitivity and 85-92% specificity.

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