European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

The need for a quick diagnosis and accurate stratification of COVID-19 patients by severity of their conditions is of paramount importance in order to ensure the right management of the patients and correct allocation of resources. The radiological grading was performed on chest radiographs of COVID-19 positive patients admitted in St. John’s Medical College using the scoring system used by Wong et al., adapted from the Radiographic Assessment of Lung Edema (RALE) score. A total of 200 patients with 54.5% males and mean age of 58.2 years, were included in the study. The worst or the highest-grade chest radiograph was chosen for grading of those patients who had more than one chest radiograph taken over the course of their hospital stay. Diagnosis of severe COVID with high sensitivity and specificity is extremely beneficial in management of patients as these are the ones who will need continuous monitoring and intensive care. Correct categorization of mild and “not mild” disease is also equally important as mild patients can be managed at home or regular wards/rooms and the limited resources can rightly be re-allocated for sick patients.