Research Collaboration Sheds Light on CT for COVID-19 Treatment

Because COVID-19 is a brand-new virus, physicians did not have an established protocol for treating patients as the pandemic began to spread. However, a collaboration between researchers and physicians at the University of Oklahoma and OU Health provides a better understanding of how computed tomography imaging can guide the current and future treatment of COVID-19. a radiologist at OU Health to publish a review article in the journal Experimental Biology and Medicine about CT’s role in determining the severity of the disease and guiding a patient’s course of treatment. OU’s new journal article compiles evidence about CT use among healthcare providers around the world.

“One of our research focuses is X-ray imaging,” said the article’s author, Hong Liu, Ph.D., a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Through this review article, we sought to provide an understanding of the role of CT so that researchers can develop new and better imaging technologies for COVID-19.”

An interdisciplinary approach was important for this study. Liu, along with colleagues Molly Wong, Ph.D., and Yuhua Li, Ph.D., paired their imaging expertise with OU Health radiologist Theresa Thai, M.D., who provided medical knowledge and experience reading CTs. Their study shows the general patterns of COVID-19 infection. Early hallmarks of the disease are the development of ground-glass opacities, which are hazy shapes in otherwise healthy lungs, Thai said. Middle stages of the infection are characterized by “crazy paving,” a continued spread of densities that mimic disorganized paving stones, and later stages see an increased consolidation of those patterns. Although these CT findings can be found in other lung conditions, studies of COVID-19 generally concur that the disease follows this trajectory.

“For physicians, CT scans can help determine which patients need to be hospitalized as opposed to those who can stay at home and recuperate,” Thai said. “And among patients who are hospitalized, CT helps determine which need to be in the ICU as opposed to a regular hospital floor.” The OU study will also serve as a road map for medical imaging researchers across the world as they use their expertise to improve imaging technology for patients with COVID-19. The next frontier is artificial intelligence, in which the computer identifies areas of concern that the radiologist can further examine and confirm, Thai said.