Effect of lateral decubitus acquisition in accuracy and lung severity estimation of chest computed tomography in children with suspected COVID-19

OBJECTIVETo compare inter-rater reliability, diagnostic accuracy, and extension of pulmonary involvement in children with suspected COVID-19 submitted to supine or supine and lateral decubitus computed tomography imaging. METHODSRetrospective study carried out between March 2020 and March 2021 with patients submitted to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing and chest computed tomography. Patients were divided into two groups: supine or supine and lateral decubitus imaging. Standardized reporting systems of computed tomographic findings in COVID-19 and chest computed tomography score were used. RESULTSOne hundred and seventeen patients were enrolled. Moderate to substantial inter-rater reliability was observed for standardized reporting systems (weighted kappa, 0.553-0.764; p