In late May, an Ahmedabad -based general physician developed COVID-19 symptoms, so he underwent an RT-PCR test. The test result was negative and he was relieved. But, when his fellow doctors suggested him to take a high-resolution computed tomography (HCRT) thorax screening, the report showed that his lungs showed patches of "opaque ground glass", that is typically associated with COVID-19. Therefore, a repeat blood test showed that he was COVID-19 positive.

The physician was among the other 125-plus city-based medical physicians who underwent free CT scans offered by Dr Amit Gupta, who is a city-based radiologist. Dr Gupta had offered this free scan for ten days at his imaging centre during the time when a test for COVID-19 required a government approval. 73 doctors were tested positive for COVID-19, out of the total doctors screened in his imaging centre.

Dr Gupta said that he started the free screening as a large number of medical doctors were getting infected by COVID-19. And it was a small gesture of gratitude towards the frontline COVID-19 warriors by doing this.

Dr Gupta swears on the accuracy of CT scans and along with him several other critical care specialists and radiologists have also started COVID-19 screening based on "CT severity score", which is also an internationally accepted practice during the coronavirus pandemic.

A radiologist said that accuracy of CT scans is much higher than RT-PCR. Moreover, RT-PCR is a yes or no type of test, while, CT scans offers the exact representation of severity.

Source: ET Healthworld