Chest CT severity score: assessment of COVID‑19 severity and short-term prognosis in hospitalized Iranian patients

The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of chest computed tomography (CT) severity score in the assessment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) severity and short-term prognosis.

In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated all patients who were referred to our university hospital, from 21 May 2020 to 22 June 2020 with positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. The patients suspected of having other respiratory diseases including influenza, according to an infectious disease specialist, and those without chest CT scan were excluded. A chest CT was obtained for all patients between days 4 and 7 days after symptom onset. Chest CT severity score was also calculated based on the degree of involvement of the lung lobes as 0%, (0 points), 1–25% (1 point), 26–50% (2 points), 51–75% (3 points), and 76–100% (4 points). The CT severity score was quantified by summing the 5 lobe indices (range 0–20). The ROC curve analysis was performed for the clinical value of CT scores in distinguishing the patients based on the severity of disease (mild/moderate group versus severe group), ICU admission, intubation requirement, and mortality.

Of the 148 patients included, 93 patients recovered, while 55 patients died (mortality rate 37%). The area under the curve of CT score for discriminating of recovered patients from deceased individuals was 0.726, and the optimal CT score threshold was 15.5 with 61.8% sensitivity and 76.3% specificity. The best CT score cut-off for discriminating of patients based on the severity of disease was 12.5 with 68.3% sensitivity and 72.7% specificity. In addition, with CT score cut-off of 15.5, sensitivities of 70.8% and 51.6% and specificities of 78% and 72.6% were observed for intubation and ICU admission, respectively.

CT scan and semiquantitative scoring method could be beneficial and applicable in predicting the patient’s condition.