April 2, 2020

Computed Tomographic Imaging of 3 Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pneumonia With Negative Virus Real-time Reverse-Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction Test

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Testing and Treatment

• Xu et al. report chest CT findings from 3 patients who initially tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 but were later confirmed as positive using rt-PCR.  Findings emphasize the possibility that swab testing is not sensitive at early stages of clinical presentation, and may miss patients if case definitions focus on viral detection.

Xu et al. (March 31, 2020). Computed Tomographic Imaging of 3 Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pneumonia With Negative Virus Real-time Reverse-Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction Test. Clin Infect Dis. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa207