WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. The USA has seen a significant increase in positive COVID-19 cases since its first documented positive patient on 20 January 2020 and currently has over 475,000 cases nationwide as of 10 April 2020, with New York City accounting for over 92,000 cases. Since then, there have been numerous cases outside of China, as evidenced by a declaration of “public health emergency of international concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 30 January 2020. Initial chest X-ray is a useful tool for triaging those subjects who might have poor outcomes with suspected COVID-19 infection and benefit most from hospitalization.ĬOVID-19 is the name of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that originated from Wuhan, China in December 2019. In addition, oxygen saturation and X-ray grade were significant predictors of intubation (odds ratio (OR) of intubation is 0.88 (95% CI, p = 0.004) and 3.69 (95% CI, p < 0.001).

Oxygen saturation and X-ray grade were both significantly associated with the length of stay in hospital, the hazard ratio (HR) of discharge was 1.05 (95% CI, p = 0.017) and 0.61 (95% CI, p < 0.001), respectively. Resultsįour hundred ten patient chest X-rays were reviewed. Past medical history of diabetes and hypertension, initial oxygen saturation, COVID-19 testing results, intubation, and outcome were also collected. The initial chest X-ray was graded on a scale of 0–3 with grade 0 representing no alveolar opacities, grade 1: 2/3 alveolar opacities of the lung. IRB approval was obtained to allow a retrospective review of adult patients who presented to the Emergency Department with a complaint of fever, cough, dyspnea or hypoxia and had a chest X-ray between 12 March 2020 and 26 March 2020. The purpose of our research is to evaluate the usefulness of chest X-ray for triaging patients with suspected COVID-19 infection.

Normal chest x ray findings