PATIENTS AND METHODS
The Institutional Ethical Board approved this study of Siirt University (Approval Number 2020/08.01). In our routine practice, patients with a history of urolithiasis in the family or themselves and who have the findings to support the stone in laboratory examinations, generally, non-contrast Abdomen CT is performed. Data of patients with flank pain are routinely recorded in the Microsoft Excel® program in our hospital’s urology clinic. The severity of the pain felt by patients presenting with flank pain is scored and recorded from one to ten using the visual analog scale (VAS) pain scoring system (Figure 1). A total of 276 patients admitted to the Siirt Training and Research Hospital Urology outpatient clinic between March 15, 2020, and August 09, 2020, with a complaint of flank pain and underwent non-contrast abdomen CT were analyzed from this data retrospectively, accompanied by a radiologist with 5 years of post-fellowship experience. Abdomen CT images of the patients were analyzed using the Siso-Pacs© image archiving and communication system. Abdomen CT images were reexamined in the lung parenchyma window and patients ground-glass density compatible with Covid-19 findings in the lung bases entering the section were included in the study. In addition, A total of 10 patients with Covid-19 compatible findings in CT were determined as the study group. A control group was formed from 10 patients with only urological pathologies (kidney stones, ureteral stones, hydronephrosis … etc) without Covid-19 compatible appearance on CT. The two groups were compared statistically according to the selected parameters.
Patients with respiratory symptoms at admission, and only those with ultrasound (US) imaging were excluded. Also, the negative results of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test were excluded from the study.