Chest CT for early detection and management of coronavirus disease (COVID-19): a report of 314 patients admitted to Emergency Department with suspected pneumonia.

Purpose: The purpose of our study was to assess the potential role of chest CT in the early detection of COVID-19 pneumonia and to explore its role in patient management in an adult Italian population admitted to the Emergency Department.

Methods: Three hundred and fourteen patients presented with clinically suspected COVID-19, from March 3 to 23, 2020, were evaluated with PaO2/FIO2 ratio from arterial blood gas, RT-PCR assay from nasopharyngeal swab sample and chest CT. Patients were classified as COVID-19 negative and COVID-19 positive according to RT-PCR results, considered as a reference.