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Use of a portable computed tomography scanner for chest imaging of COVID-19 patients in the urgent care at a tertiary cancer center.

Authors :
Bates DDB
Vintonyak A
Mohabir R
Mahmood U
Soto P
Groeger JS
Ginsberg MS
Gollub MJ
Source :
Emergency radiology [Emerg Radiol] 2020 Dec; Vol. 27 (6), pp. 597-600. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Jun 09.
Publication Year :
2020

Abstract

To present a novel use of a portable computed tomography (CT) for evaluation of COVID-19 patients presenting to an urgent care center (UCC). Infection control is imperative for hospitals treating patients with COVID-19, even more so in cancer centers, where the majority of the patient population is susceptible to adverse outcomes from the infection. Over the past several weeks, our department has worked to repurpose a portable CT scanner from our surgical colleagues that operates with fixed-parameters to perform non-contrast, helical, thin-slice chest imaging to address the known pulmonary complications of COVID-19. Despite the technical limitations of the portable CT unit that was repurposed for the UCC, diagnostic-quality images in an acute care setting were successfully obtained. Repurposing of a portable CT scanner for use in COVID-19 patients offers a feasible option to obtain diagnostic quality images while minimizing the risk of exposing other patients and hospital staff to an infected patient.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1438-1435
Volume :
27
Issue :
6
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Emergency radiology
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
32519294
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10140-020-01801-5