Physicians should decide on chest CT scans, say doctors
The Hindu
‘Not everyone who tests positive requires the procedure’
The rise in coronavirus infections has led to several patients seeking chest CT scans on their own. Not everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 requires a CT scan, and the decision should be left to the treating physicians, according to doctors.
V. Anand Kumar, nodal officer, Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital, said, “Right now, we have to convince many persons who have tested positive for COVID-19 that not all require scans. People tell us that they have mild fever with cough and want to undergo a scan. We are telling them that cough and sore throat are quite common now, and scans are not required if there is no breathing difficulty and no dip in oxygen saturation. The second wave was different as we saw patients with lung involvement in the early days itself, and the same protocol need not be followed now.”
He said that at the COVID-19 outpatient department, the earlier protocol of prescribing a CT scan for persons who had tested positive was dropped, and home isolation was recommended with continuous monitoring for healthy and fully vaccinated individuals with a mild disease.