Chest CT for Typical Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pneumonia: Relationship to Negative RT-PCR Testing

TLDR

Some patients with positive chest CT findings may present with negative real‑time reverse‑transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‑PCR) results for COVID‑19. The study aims to present chest CT findings from five COVID‑19 patients who initially tested negative by RT‑PCR. The authors examined chest CT scans of these five patients to characterize their imaging features. All five patients exhibited typical imaging findings of ground‑glass opacity or mixed ground‑glass opacity with consolidation, and repeated swab tests eventually confirmed COVID‑19; thus, combining repeated swab tests with CT scanning may aid diagnosis when RT‑PCR screening is negative.

Abstract

Some patients with positive chest CT findings may present with negative results of real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this study, the authors present chest CT findings from five patients with COVID-19 infection who had initial negative RT-PCR results. All five patients had typical imaging findings, including ground-glass opacity (five patients) and/or mixed ground-glass opacity and mixed consolidation (two patients). After isolation for presumed COVID-19 pneumonia, all patients were eventually confirmed to have COVID-19 infection by means of repeated swab tests. A combination of repeated swab tests and CT scanning may be helpful for individuals with a high clinical suspicion of COVID-19 infection but negative findings at RT-PCR screening.