Chest radiographical imaging could be conducive to early identification of asymptomatic COVID-19 infections

Objectives:
What are the epidemiological and radiographical characteristics of asymptomatic infections with COVID-19?

Study design:
This review article included 104 studies involving 20,152 cases.

Results and conclusions:   
The investigators found the proportion of asymptomatic individuals among those with COVID-19 was 13.34% [95% CI = 10.86% to 16.29%], among which the presymptomatic and covert infections were 7.64% [95% CI = 4.02% to 14.04%] and 8.44% [95% CI = 5.12% to 13.62%], respectively.

The investigators found the proportions of asymptomatic infections among infected children and healthcare workers were 32.24% [95% CI = 23.08% to 42.13%] and 36.96% [95% CI = 18.51% to 60.21%], respectively.

The investigators found the proportion of asymptomatic infections was significantly higher after 2020/02/29 than before [33.53% vs 10.19%] and in non-Asian regions than in Asia [28.76% vs 11.54%].

The investigators found the median viral shedding duration of asymptomatic infections was 14.14 days [95% CI = 11.25 to 17.04].

The investigators found a total of 47.62% [95% CI = 31.13% to 72.87%] of asymptomatic infections showed lung abnormalities, especially ground-glass opacity 41.11% [95% CI = 19.7% to 85.79%].

The investigators concluded asymptomatic COVID-19 infections are more often present in infected children and healthcare workers and they increase after 2020/02/29 and in non-Asian regions. Chest radiographical imaging could be conducive to early identification of asymptomatic COVID-19 infections.

Original title:
The epidemiological and radiographical characteristics of asymptomatic infections with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19): A systematic review and meta-analysis by Chen C, Zhu C, […], Yang S.

Link:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33444755/

Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on coronavirus right here.