Mustafa Khaled Alhasan^1,2* and Mohamed Hasaneen¹

¹Radiography and Medical Imaging Department, Fatima College of Health Sciences, Abu Dhabi, UAE
²Radiologic Technology Program, Applied Medical Sciences College, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan

*Corresponding Author: Mustafa Khaled Alhasan, Radiography and Medical Imaging Department, Fatima College of Health Sciences, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Received: June 12, 2021 ; Published: July 21, 2021

Abstract

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that has affected almost all the world countries and spread quickly among people. Therefore, the World Health Organization (WHO) and governments have implemented strict safety protocols to stop the spread of the virus and to control the infection range. The Radiology department plays a vital role in confirming or following up with COVID-19 cases. Accordingly, guidelines and regulations were implemented to ensure staff and patients’ safety and to overcome the high demand for the imaging procedures.

The purpose of this review is to highlight and address the current imaging procedures, including health and infection control guidelines applied in the radiology department. Therefore, most recent relevant articles from different databases were reviewed and summarized.

Precautionary measures including portable X-ray equipment to restrict transporting infected patients to radiology departments, utilization of personal protective equipment (PPE) and disposable gowns, and disinfecting CT, MRI gantry and ultrasound probes should be strictly implemented by radiology department personnel. During US imaging, US examiner might be at risk of getting infected due to close contact with the patient and prolonged examination time, especially with point-of-care and portable US. Regarding the radiology staff, temporal and physical team segregation strategy can be an effective way in managing radiology department workload. Therefore, maintaining the mental and physical health of staff play a critical role to implement proper health care procedures to the COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; Precautions; Guidelines; Radiology; CT; MRI

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Citation

Citation: Mustafa Khaled Alhasan and Mohamed Hasaneen. “Clinical Imaging Procedures and Guidelines during COVID-19 Pandemic ”. Acta Scientific Microbiology 4.8 (2021): 65-80.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Mustafa Khaled Alhasan and Mohamed Hasaneen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.