Radiology holds key in tackling the pandemic

The Government Omandurar Medical College Hospital celebrated a rare achievement on Sunday, the International Day of Radiology (IDoR). It has performed over 17,000 CT scans and 16,000 X-ray scans on persons with COVID-19.

The IDoR, first introduced in 2012, is celebrated on November 8 and coincides with the anniversary of the discovery of X-rays.

The theme for the current year is ‘Radiologists and radiographers supporting patients during COVID-19’.

Dean R. Jayanthi said the government installed an exclusive CT scanner for the post-COVID care centre within a fortnight. “Ever since this hospital was declared an exclusive COVID care hospital for the State, we have in place stringent measures to prevent infection to staff and doctors and to mitigate cross-infection among patients. We strictly follow zero-contact techniques,” she said.

“Radiology has assumed enormous significance in diagnosis and prognostication in the present pandemic. Though the simplest and most basic modality X-rays have been largely useful, chest X-ray can pick up only gross lesions and may not be useful in detecting early and mild infection,” said B. Suhasini, head of the radiology department.

On the other hand, the CT scan is useful in early diagnosis and disease stratification as mild, moderate and severe, thereby determining the prognosis. Widespread use of CT scan during the pandemic has led to the introduction of Covid Reporting And Data Systems (CORADS), similar to BIRADS, a scoring tool for breast lumps, she said.

The CT severity score is given on a scale of 25 to 40, based on an analysis of the extent of involvement of the lungs. At the hospital, while 12,770 scans showed less than 25% lung involvement, in 1,709 scans it was 75%-100%. The wide use of the CT scan has given rise to new terms such as ground glass opacities, crazy paving, halo and reversed halo signs and tree-in bud appearances to describe CT patterns, Dr. Suhasini said. The Hindu