Vingiani Vincenzo, Abadia Andres F, Belmonte Gianfranco, Rutigliano Claudia, Pasqualetto Luigi, Presidente Alfonso, Napolitano Claudio, Lelario Maurizio, Corvino Antonio, Posa Alessandro
Department of Radiology, Ospedale Centrale di Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy.
U.O.C. Radiologia, P.O. Sorrento, Ospedali riuniti "Area penisola Sorrentina", Sorrento, Italy.
Pol J Radiol. 2022 Jul 27;87:e415-e420. doi: 10.5114/pjr.2022.118659. eCollection 2022.
The aim of this multicentric study is to illustrate how the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown affected the workload and outcomes of radiological examinations in emergency radiology.
The exams performed in the radiology departments of 4 Italian hospitals during 3 weeks of the Italian lockdown were retrospectively reviewed and compared to the exams conducted during the same period in 2019. Only exams from the emergency department (ED) were included. Two radiologists from each hospital defined the cases as positive or negative findings, based on independent blind readings of the imaging studies. In the case of differences in the evaluation, consensus was reached amongst them via discussion. Continuous measurements are presented as median and interquartile range, while categorical measurements are presented as frequency and percentage; -values were calculated using the -test, Mann-Whitney test, and the c test.
There were 745 patients (53% male; 62 years [44-78]) who underwent radiological examinations in 2020 vs. 2623 (52% male; 56 years [35-76]) in 2019 ( < 0.001). Furthermore, the total number of ED exams dropped from 3206 (2019) to 939 (2020), with a relative increase of CT examinations from 23% to 33% ( < 0.001). The percentage of patients with a positive finding was significantly higher in 2020 (355, 48%) compared to 2019 (684, 26%) ( < 0.001).
Our findings show that despite the reduction of emergency radiological examinations, there was a rela-tive increase in the number of positive cases. These significant findings are crucial to ensure better organization of radiology departments and improve patient management during similar health emergencies in the future.
这项多中心研究的目的是阐明2019冠状病毒病大流行封锁措施如何影响急诊放射学中放射检查的工作量和结果。
回顾性分析意大利4家医院放射科在意大利封锁期间3周内进行的检查，并与2019年同期进行的检查进行比较。仅纳入急诊科的检查。每家医院的两名放射科医生根据影像学研究的独立盲法读片将病例定义为阳性或阴性结果。如有评估差异，则通过讨论达成共识。连续测量值以中位数和四分位数间距表示，分类测量值以频率和百分比表示；P值使用t检验、曼-惠特尼检验和卡方检验计算。
2020年有745例患者（53%为男性；62岁[44 - 78岁]）接受了放射检查，而2019年为2623例（52%为男性；56岁[35 - 76岁]）（P < 0.001）。此外，急诊科检查总数从2019年的3206例降至2020年的939例，CT检查的相对比例从23%增至33%（P < 0.001）。2020年阳性结果患者的百分比（355例，48%）显著高于2019年（684例，26%）（P < 0.001）。
我们的研究结果表明，尽管急诊放射检查数量减少，但阳性病例数量相对增加。这些重要发现对于确保放射科更好地组织以及在未来类似健康紧急情况期间改善患者管理至关重要。
