Trends in CT examination utilization in the emergency department during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Autor: Felix Kempter, Tobias Heye, Jan Vosshenrich, Benjamin Ceresa, Dominik Jäschke
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: BMC Medical Imaging, Vol 24, Iss 1, Pp 1-13 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1471-2342
DOI: 10.1186/s12880-024-01457-4
Popis: Abstract Background The increasing use of CT imaging in emergency departments, despite efforts of reducing low-value imaging, is not fully understood, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic related measures on trends and volume in CT examinations requested in the emergency department. Methods CT examinations of the head, chest, and/or abdomen-pelvis (n = 161,008), and chest radiographs (n = 113,240) performed at our tertiary care hospital between 01/2014 and 12/2023 were retrospectively analyzed. CT examinations (head, chest, abdomen, dual-region and polytrauma) and chest radiographs requested by the emergency department during (03/2020-03/2022) and after the COVID-19 pandemic (04/2022-12/2023) were compared to a pre-pandemic control period (02/2018-02/2020). Analyses included CT examinations per emergency department visit, and prediction models based on pre-pandemic trends and inpatient data. A regular expressions text search algorithm determined the most common clinical questions. Results The usage of dual-region and chest CT examinations were higher during (+ 116,4% and + 115.8%, respectively; p
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