7 reasons why you don't need a CT scan for coronavirus

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

It can be downright dangerous.

In October 2020, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation appealed to citizens with a request not to do computed tomography (CT) of the lungs without a doctor's prescription.

And there are good reasons for this. The life hacker figured out the details.

What is CT

Computed tomography Computed tomography is a method of detailed, layer-by-layer examination of the body. It is based on X-ray radiation.

The patient is placed in a tomograph. It rotates and emits an X-ray beam that passes through the body at different angles and in different planes. Then the beam is captured by the detectors, the recorded signal is sent to a computer, processed, and doctors receive an image that is a cross-section of the patient's body at the level that was examined.

This helps to examine in detail the internal state of the brain, organs of the chest, abdominal cavity, small pelvis, and extremities. Thus, doctors determine exactly where, for example, a tumor, a thrombus, a hemorrhage is located, what a complex fracture looks like, how much the vessels of the heart or lungs are affected.

Why you don't need to have a CT scan for coronavirus

Let's make a reservation right away: if the attending physician insists on computed tomography of the lungs, then it is needed. But it is absolutely not worth prescribing a CT scan on your own, without a doctor's referral, according to the principle “you have to see if you never know what”. That's why.

1. CT is not harmless to health

Computed tomography uses the same radiation as X-rays. Only not one picture is taken (as, for example, with fluorography), but tens and even hundreds. This means that with a CT scan, you receive a dose of radiation that is many times higher than a conventional X-ray scan.

Doing one CT scan is about the same as doing X-rays every day for a year.

According to What are the Radiation Risks from CT? of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the radiation to which a person is exposed to a CT scan is estimated in the range from 1 to 10 millisieverts (mSv). This is not much less than the doses that some Japanese atomic bomb survivors received. Science is still studying the consequences of such radiation, but it is assumed that they may be associated with an increased risk of developing cancer.

2. CV cannot diagnose COVID-19

Computed tomography detects changes in the lungs. But not the reason why they happened.

For example, take Ground-glass opacification, one of the most common signs of lung damage in COVID-19. In essence, it is an inflammation of the alveoli, the vesicles that fill the lungs with oxygen and transfer it into the blood.

Exactly the same lesion can be recorded with other viral diseases - with the same flu, the epidemics of which occur every cool season.

That is, a CT scan can detect viral pneumonia. But it won't tell you anything about the disease it is caused by.

3. CT does not cure

If viral pneumonia is detected on computed tomography and even if the doctor suggests that it is associated with coronavirus, this information will do little in terms of therapy. For the simple reason that science has not yet learned how to treat most viral diseases, including COVID-19.

All that a physician can offer to such a patient is symptomatic therapy: rest, drink more fluids, if necessary, bring down the temperature with over-the-counter antipyretics and monitor the condition. Only if it starts to deteriorate (this happens, for example, when bacterial complications are added), should you go to the doctor again and review the treatment tactics, in particular, use antibiotics and other drugs.

4. CT is not needed to see bacterial complications

One of the most common complications of coronavirus is bacterial pneumonia. As a rule, it joins no earlier than 4-6 days after the onset of the first symptoms. That is, if you do a CT scan, then not earlier than this time. However, there is a big but.

You don't need a CT scan to see bacterial pneumonia.

X-rays, a more common, cheaper and much less dangerous diagnostic method, will do an excellent job with this task.

5. During the procedure, you risk getting infected

Due to the coronavirus-related panic, CT is one of the most demanded diagnostic procedures today. Often, the organizations conducting this research are overwhelmed. Patients have to wait in lines where people who are actually infected with COVID-19 sit next to those who are not yet infected, but only assume an infection.

Impossible About outpatient computed tomography centers for the diagnosis of coronavirus infection to completely sterilize both the computed tomography machine itself and the air in the room between procedures. In addition, this is not only CT, but also waiting, a journey from office to office.

From a statement by members of the Independent Medical Society

That is, going to a CT scan can lead to infection with COVID-19. And this risk must also be taken into account.

6. Your CT scan can affect other people

The connection is simple: if a CT scan is done to you without indications, the procedure simply does not have time to be carried out by those who really need such a diagnostic method. This means that complications in these patients remain unrecognized, which can lead to an untimely start of treatment and even cost people their lives.

7. Experts do not recommend CT scan for mild coronavirus

The vast majority of medical organizations insist that computed tomography is useless for mild forms of COVID-19. Its results do not affect either the diagnosis, or the tactics of treatment, or the prognosis.

This is stated, among other things, in the recommendations of the Temporary guidelines. Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

Does this mean that CT scan is not needed at all for coronavirus?

No. Computed tomography can be an extremely useful, effective and vital diagnostic method. But only if it is carried out according to indications.

According to the Interim Guidelines. Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, CT for COVID-19 is indicated for two main groups of patients:

• Those with pronounced clinical symptoms of a severe respiratory infection: shortness of breath and an extremely high fever (above 39 ° C).
• People who have signs of a respiratory viral infection combined with serious risk factors: severe diabetes, severe heart failure, severe overweight.

In this case, CT will show how dangerous the patient's condition is, and can become the basis for determining further treatment.

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