Development and implementation of optimized chest CT protocol in COVID-19: A clinical audit

BACKGROUND: Several studies have justified use of chest computed tomography (CT) in diagnosis, evaluation of severity, treatment response, and complications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. Increased utilization of CT in patients with known or suspected COVID-19 pneumonia has resulted in concerns of overuse, lack of protocol optimization, and radiation exposure. AIMS: The study was conducted to develop and implement optimized protocol for chest CT for reducing radiation dose in adult patients suspected or diagnosed to have COVID-19 infection. SETTING AND DESIGN: The study was conducted in the department of radiology of a rural tertiary care teaching hospital in western India. Clinical audit was used as a tool to impart and assess the impact of optimized chest CT protocol. METHODS AND MATERIAL: The pre-intervention audit included radiation dosimetry data, number of phases and length of scan of 50 adult patients, undergoing non-contrast chest CT scans in March 2021. A brief educational intervention outlining the parameters of optimized protocol was conducted on April 1, 2021.The post-intervention audit consisted of two cycles for 109 and 67 chest CT scans in the months April and May 2021. RESULTS: The optimized protocol was found clinically adequate with a good inter-rater reliability. The compliance to the optimized protocol was weak in audit cycle 2, which improved significantly in audit cycle 3 after reinforcement. The mean (SD) per scan Computed Tomography Dose Index-Volume (CTDI-vol) reduced significantly across audit cycles [22.06 (12. 31) Vs. 10.58 (7.58) Vs. 4.51 (2.90) milli Gray, respectively, P < 0.001]. Similar findings were noted for Dose Length Product (DLP). CONCLUSION: Clinical audit of chest CT protocol and resultant radiation doses provided adequate feedback for dose optimization. A simple educational intervention helped achieve dose optimization.