As physicians and researchers around the globe grapple with the COVID-19 epidemic, one of their more pressing problems is finding ways to diagnose the disease quickly. CT scanning has become an important diagnostic tool, and recently, a leading team of medical researchers announced they have identified a new way to distinguish COVID-19 from other pneumonias.
Adam Bernheim, MD, a cardiothoracic radiologist who pored over hundreds of scans of patients with the coronavirus in China, explains:
“We were able to see spots in lungs in places and with shapes that we don’t ordinarily see with other pneumonias,” Bernheim said.
He says a normal chest CT scan shows a black chest filled with air and white lines for arteries or veins. When the lung is diseased, the picture changes.
“We’re finding grey spots that develop into white spots, and they have a round shape and are centered around outer part of lung,” Bernheim said. “That’s a very atypical pattern for other infections and other pneumonias.”
To read more and watch the report from 12 News in Phoenix.
