• Amir Reza Radmard, Ali Gholamrezanezhad, Seyed Ali Montazeri, Amir Kasaeian, Nemat Nematollahy, Roghieh Molaee Langrudi, Reza Javad Rashid, Alireza Dehghan, Ali Hekmatnia, Ali Shakourirad, Pezeshki Rad Masoud M Department of Radiology, Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran., Reza Nafisi Moghadam, Hashem Sharifian, Ahmad Enhesari, Marzieh Aalinezhad, Ghazaleh Jamalipour Soufi, Alireza Shakibafard, Maryam Mohammadzadeh, Reza Jalli, Mehrdad Bakhshayeshkaram, Faghihi Langroudi Taraneh T Department of Radiology, Shahid Modarres Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran., Masoomeh Raoufi, Alireza Abrishami, Pooneh Dehghan, Hooman Bahrami-Motlagh, Hassan Hashemi, and Morteza Sanei Taheri.
• Department of Radiology, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
• Arch Iran Med. 2020 Nov 1; 23 (11): 787-793.

BackgroundChest computed tomography (CT) scan has been used widely to diagnose COVID-19 in Iran.ObjectivesTo trace the footsteps of COVID-19 in Iran by exploring the trend in using chest CT scans and its economic impact on radiology departments. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the number of imaging examinations from 33 tertiary radiology departments in 9 large cities of Iran was collected from September 23, 2019 to March 20, 2020 (Months 1 to 6) and the corresponding months in 2018-2019.ResultsA 50.2% increase was noted in the chest CT scan utilization in 2019-2020 compared to 2018-2019. This increase was +15%, +15%, +27%, +2%, +1% in Months 1-5 of 2019-2020, respectively. In Month 6 of 2019-2020, a 251% increase in the acquisition of chest CT scans was observed compared to the Month 6 of 2018-2019. Following negative balance of revenue from Month 1 to 5 with respect to the inflation rate, the total income in Month 6 was further 1.5% less than the same Month in 2018-19.ConclusionThe observed peak in chest CT utilization in Month 3 prior to the surge in Month 6 could be explained by the seasonal influenza. However, unawareness about an emerging viral disease, i.e. COVID-19, might have underutilized chest CT in Months 4 and 5 before the official announcement in Month 6. The unbalanced increase in the workload of radiology departments in the shortage of cardiothoracic radiologists with the simultaneous decrease in income initiated a vicious cycle that worsened the economic repercussions of the pandemic.© 2020 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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