Mean Brixia Severity Scores among Symptomatic COVID-19 Patients in a Tertiary Care Centre: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

TL;DR

This study calculates average Brixia severity scores from chest X-rays of symptomatic COVID-19 patients at a tertiary care center.

Contribution

It provides new descriptive data on Brixia scores in a specific clinical setting during a defined time period.

Findings

The mean Brixia severity score was 7.15±5.07 among 300 symptomatic patients.

Among patients with abnormal X-rays, the mean score was 9.13±3.84.

Most patients had moderate severity scores.

Abstract

COVID-19 is a highly contagious viral disease which escalated into a global pandemic since its outbreak on 31 December 2019. Chest X-rays are the most common investigation in suspected cases to diagnose and manage pneumonia. The aim of this study was to find out the mean Brixia severity scores among symptomatic COVID-19 patients in a tertiary care centre.

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among the chest X-rays of symptomatic COVID-19-positive patients of a tertiary care centre. Data from 1 May 2021 to 31 July 2021 were collected between 1 August 2022 and 1 January 2023 from the hospital records. Ethical approval was taken from Institutional Review Committee (Reference number: 01-079/080). Patients with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction with symptoms of COVID-19 were included in this study. Convenience sampling method was used. Point estimate and 95% Confidence Interval were calculated.

Among the total of 300 patients, the mean Brixia severity score was 7.15±5.07 and out of 235 patients with abnormal chest X-ray, the mean Brixia severity score was 9.13±3.84. A total of 68 (22.66%) patients had mild, 115 (38.33%) had moderate and 52 (17.33%) had severe scores.

The mean Brixia severity score among symptomatic COVID-19 patients was found to be higher than the other studies done in similar settings.