The value of chest CT as a COVID-19 screening tool in children

It is difficult to identify children infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who have little or no respiratory symptoms. For routine clinical care in different circumstances, it is relevant to assess the COVID-19 status of patients. Routine PCR is recognised as the gold standard but can be falsely negative due to sampling errors. For diagnosing and monitoring adult COVID-19 patients, characteristic radiological lesions have been recognised [1, 2] and to assess the possibility of COVID-19 infection in adults scheduled for surgery in whom a PCR test is negative or missing, a non-enhanced chest computed tomography (CT) scan has been proposed as an option in the Netherlands [3] because: 1) patients may be pre-symptomatic in the incubation period of COVID-19 infection and subsequently develop symptoms post-operatively, implying a greater risk for adverse post-operative outcomes; and 2) patients may be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic carriers and shedders of COVID-19, and place hospital workers and other patients at risk. Chest CT is not a suitable screening tool to rule out COVID-19 in children