Impacts of Covıd-19 Pandemıc on Breast Imagıng Examınatıons
Halit Nahit Sendur1, Serap Gultekin1, Mahi Nur Cerit1, Emetullah Cindil1, Aydan Avdan Aslan1, Erencan Karakoc11Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University , Ankara, Turkey
Objective: To investigate breast imaging case number changes during the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison to same time periods in the years of 2019 and 2020 in our tertiary referral hospital. Materials and methods: Between April 2019 to July 2019 and between April 2020 to July 2020, total numbers for mammography, breast ultrasound and breast MRI cases that were obtained in breast imaging center of our hospital were noted for each month. Descriptive statistics of the data consisted of monthly case numbers for each breast imaging modality. Percentage changes of overall cases numbers and monthly case numbers for each breast imaging modality were calculated for the determined time periods (April to July) between the years of 2019 and 2020. Results: In April to July 2020, there was an apparent decline in case numbers for each breast imaging modality when compared to same timespan in 2019. The percentage decreases in overall case numbers for breast imaging modalities varied between 41.7% to 64.4%. Among breast imaging modalities, the sharpest decline in case numbers was detected on mammography. Conclusion: The current study revealed that COVID-19 pandemic caused a marked decrease in all breast imaging case volumes particularly in the first two months of the pandemic. Key words: COVID-19, mammography, breast ultrasound, breast MRI.
Cite This Article
Sendur H, Gultekin S, Cerit M, Cindil E, Aslan A, Karakoc E. Impacts of Covıd-19 Pandemıc on Breast Imagıng Examınatıons. EJMI. 2020; 4(4): 534-537
Corresponding Author: Halit Nahit Sendur