الفهرس 
Review of LiteratureOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
In December 2019, in Wuhan, China, a novel Coronavirus was identified and has been rapidly spreading worldwide since. On 11 March, COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). This pneumonia was officially named as causative agent of serious acute coronavirus 2 respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) by the WHO. The pathogen responsible for COVID19 is SARS-Cov2 virus.
COVID- 19 patients present with a variety of symptoms ranging from asymptomatic to having a simple upper respiratory tract infection to having severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). As there is no specific vaccine or curative treatment, rapid diagnosis of affected cases is critical for early patient isolation and disease control.
Regardless of clinical signs and symptoms, viral nucleic acid detection remains the gold standard in COVID-19 diagnosis, and it is also an effective method for screening asymptomatic infection patients. The most common method is to test a swab of the throat with a real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR). However, in COVID-19 patients, nucleic acid detection cannot accurately determine the severity of disease.
In terms of laboratory findings, nearly half of the COVID-19infected patients had a low WBC count, lymphopenia (low lymphocyte count), or thrombocytopenia (low blood platelet count) with an increased activated thromboplastin time. C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were elevated in the majority of patients, but procalcitonin (PCT) levels were normal. Serum ferritin levels were found to be elevated in some patients. All of these changes added to the evidence that COVID-19 may have an effect on lymphocytes, particularly T cells.
Chest CT scan provides more detailed information about the chest and hence, it is used to diagnose COVID-19 patients. Abnormal CT findings such as pneumonia, the existence of patterns like groundglass opacity (GGO), and bilateral patchy shadowing are frequently observed in positive COVID-19 cases.
Pulse oximetry is a simple, cheap and non-invasive method of measuring SpO2. In the critically ill, SpO2 does not reliably predict equivalent changes in SaO2. Peripheral oxygen saturation can underestimate SaO2 in low perfusion states, arrhythmias, vasoconstriction, venous pulsations, edema and severe anemia. Most COVID-19 patients who had SpO2 < 92% experienced an abrupt DROP in SpO2 rather than a gradual decline. So it is important to assess o2 saturation.
According to our knowledge to date, there has been no study in Egypt explores the role of CT chest, spo2 and inflammatory lab markers as auxiliary elements and predictors in assessment of the degree and severity of COVID 19 cases.
This study aims to explores the role of CT chest, spo2 and inflammatory lab markers as auxiliary elements and predictors in (assessment of the degree and severity) of COVID 19 cases of COVID 19 cases This Retrospective observational study included 108 patients with confirmed COVID 19 at Isolation unit in Tala General Hospital after obtaining written approval from patients and hospital ethical committee.