RELATIONSHIP OF RADIOLOGICAL STAGE WITH LABORATORY PARAMETERS AND MORTALITY IN COVID-19 PNEUMONIA

Sinem Akkaya Isik^{1, *}, Cesur Samanci², Melike Yesildal^2, Semiha Celik Ekinci¹,Burak Sarikaya^1,  Ercan Yenilmez¹

¹Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, University of Health Sciences, Sultan Abdulhamid Han Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey- ²Department of Radiological Sciences, University of Health Sciences, Sultan Abdulhamid Han Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

Introduction: In our study, the aim was to define the factors in the diagnosis and treatment through the examination of the relationship between computerized tomography (CT) images and other parameters in COVID-19.

Materials and methods: Patients receiving treatment for COVID-19 in our hospital between March 11 and April 6, 2020, had laboratory and clinical data available were included in our study. Temporal CT stages and CT severity scores were found. The effects of these stages and scores on laboratory parameters and mortality were examined.

Results: The change in severity scores of the patients according to the temporal CT stage was significant (p<0.0001). Moreover, there was a statistically significant difference in the changes of the mean values for lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and C-reactive protein (CRP) as compared to the temporal CT stage (p=0.001, p<0.0001, p<0.0001, respectively). There was a significant correlation between the CT severity score and lymphocyte count, LDH, ESR, CRP, D-dimer, and ferritin values. In our study, we sought to determine a cut-off CT severity score with a view to predicting mortality. To this aim, the optimal limit value in the ROC curve was defined as 10.5 (sensitivity 73.7%, specificity 65.1%, and AUC 0.784). Furthermore, in our study we found a significant relationship between the temporal CT stage and mortality (p=0.017).

Conclusion: In the CT of COVID-19 patients, both advanced temporal stage and a high severity score are associated with poor prognosis. Our study results can be used in developing risk scoring systems that include the parameters of imaging and biochemical tests to predict prognosis and mortality.