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FRIDAY, May 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) — A chest X-ray (CXR) severity score can predict outcomes among young and middle-aged adults with COVID-19 on presentation to the emergency department, according to a study published online May 14 in Radiology<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Danielle Toussie, M.D., from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues analyzed the prognostic value of a CXR severity scoring system for 338 younger patients with COVID-19 on presentation to the emergency department. Data were included for patients aged 21 to 50 years who presented to emergency departments from March 10 to 26, 2020, with confirmed COVID-19. Each CXR was divided into six zones and was examined for opacities, with scores collated into a total lung zone severity score.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that independent predictors of hospital admission were CXR severity score \u22652 (odds ratio, 6.2) and obesity (odds ratio, 2.4) or morbid obesity after adjustment for demographics and comorbidities. A CXR score \u22653 was an independent predictor of intubation (odds ratio, 4.7), as was hospital site, among patients who were admitted. The primary outcomes did not differ significantly across race\/ethnicity or with history of tobacco use, asthma, or type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n
“These results underscore how COVID-19, despite its many nonrespiratory manifestations, is primarily a respiratory illness and the lung parenchymal changes — as seen on chest radiography as opacification — are the primary driver of disease progression,” the authors write. “These findings allow for identification of high-risk patients while minimizing anchoring heuristics that may be present among clinicians in high-volume settings.”<\/p>\n