Abstract
Objectives: To present quantitative assessment using a meta-analysis of published clinical studies on radiological findings of COVID-19 and to quantify the role of imaging and radiography in definitive analysis of COVID-19 cases
Design: To present a meta-analysis on radiological findings for patients with COVID-19 using clinical studies
Setting: This study includes all clinical trials, such as observational studies, covering radiological findings to perform meta-analysis.
Subjects: A total of nine studies were found eligible from three different databases: PubMed, Web of Science and SCOPUS.
Interventions: A random-effects model meta-analysis was performed to calculate the pooled prevalence and the 95% confidence interval.
Main outcome measure(s): The study reports the I-2 index, measures of heterogeneity and Cochran's Q statistic.
Result(s): In total, 71 articles were retrieved, of which 25 were selected for full-text evaluation after screening but nine were included for quantitative assessment. Of 669 patients, 47.94% presented with bilateral pneumonia, 21.68% with unilateral pneumonia and 30.32% with ground-glass opacity. Predominant distribution was presented in 61.58% of patients (heterogeneity=4.24,.2=39.36, I-2=80%, P=.002).
Conclusion(s): Patients with typical imaging findings must be isolated and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) should be repeated to prevent misdiagnosis, given that the results of rRT-PCR might be false-negative.