Published online Dec 20, 2023. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v13.i5.456
Peer-review started: September 27, 2023
First decision: November 2, 2023
Revised: November 6, 2023
Accepted: December 7, 2023
Article in press: December 7, 2023
Published online: December 20, 2023
Processing time: 84 Days and 2.2 Hours
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is still continuing. Vaccination has an important place in preventing the disease and vaccination reduces the possibility of a severe course of the disease.
It is important to investigate whether vaccination has any effect on the computed tomography (CT) severity score (CT-SS) and CORADS score of COVID-19 patients.
We aim to investigate whether the vaccination status of inpatient treatment for COVID-19 has any effect on the CT-SS and CORADS score taken during hospitalization.
This single-center retrospective study was conducted between April 1, 2021 and April 1, 2022 with a total of 224 patients older than 18 years of age, whose vaccination status was accessible, who had positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 polymerase chain reaction results, and who had a thorax CT taken during hospitalization.
Among the patients included in the study, 52.2% were female and the mean age was 61.85 years. The patients applied to the hospital on the average 7th day of their complaints. While 63 patients were unvaccinated (Group 1), 20 were vaccinated with a single dose of CoronaVac (Group 2), 24 with a single dose of BioNTech (Group 3), 38 with 2 doses of CoronaVac (Group 4), 40 with 2 doses of BioNTech (Group 5), and 39 with 3 doses of vaccine (2 doses of CoronaVac followed by a single dose of BioNTech, Group 6). CT-SS ranged from 5 to 23, with a mean of 12.17. CT-SS mean of the groups were determined as 14.17, 13.35, 11.58, 10.87, 11.28, 10.85, respectively. Accordingly, as a result of the comparisons between the groups, the CT-SS levels of the unvaccinated patients found to be significantly higher than the other groups. As the vaccination rates increased, the rate of typical COVID-19 findings on CT was found to be significantly lower.
The increase in vaccination rates in COVID-19 patients reduces the CT Severity Score and the CORADS score.
It is important that COVID-19 vaccinations continue. With the effect of vaccination, the possibility of severe course of the disease will decrease. There will be a need for studies in which more patient data are analyzed and data obtained from patients with different vaccines are evaluated.