Low Dose Chest CT and Lung Ultrasound for the Diagnosis and Management of COVID-19

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity to use low- and non-radiating chest imaging techniques on a large scale in the context of an infectious disease, which has never been done before. Previously, low-dose techniques were rarely used for infectious diseases, despite the recognised danger of ionising radiation.

Method: To evaluate the role of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) and lung ultrasound (LUS) in managing COVID-19 pneumonia, we performed a review of the literature including our cases.

Results: Chest LDCT is now performed routinely when diagnosing and assessing the severity of COVID-19, allowing patients to be rapidly triaged. The extent of lung involvement assessed by LDCT is accurate in terms of predicting poor clinical outcomes in COVID-19-infected patients. Infectious disease specialists are less familiar with LUS, but this technique is also of great interest for a rapid diagnosis of patients with COVID-19 and is effective at assessing patient prognosis.

Conclusions: COVID-19 is currently accelerating the transition to low-dose and "no-dose" imaging techniques to explore infectious pneumonia and their long-term consequences.