The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on neuroimaging volume in New York City

Abstract

Background and Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic acutely disrupted all facets of healthcare, with future implications that are expected to resonate for many years. We investigated the effect of the pandemic on neuroimaging volume, hypothesizing that all representative studies would experience a reduction in volume, with those typically performed in the inpatient setting (noncontrast enhanced CT head and CTA head/neck) taking longer to recover to pre-pandemic volumes compared to studies typically performed in the outpatient setting (MR brain with and without and MR lumbar spine without).

Materials and Methods

We retrospectively queried our institution’s radiology reporting system to collect weekly data for 1 year following the World Health Organization declaration of a pandemic (11 March 2020–9 March 2021) and compared them to imaging volumes from the previous year (11 March 2019–9 March 2020). We subsequently analyzed quarterly data (e.g., first quarter comparison: 3/11/2020–6/9/2020 was compared to 3/11/2019–6/9/2019).

Results

All studies experienced decreased volume during the first quarter of the year following onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with noncontrast enhanced CT head failing to recover to pre-pandemic volumes. CTA head/neck actually surpassed pre-pandemic volume by the second quarter of the year. MRI brain w/wo and MRI lumbar spine without recovered to baseline volume by the second quarter.

Conclusion

Noncontrast enhanced CT head did not recover pre-pandemic imaging volume. CTA head/neck volume initially decreased, however volume increased above pre-pandemic levels during the second quarter; this finding may be attributable to a prothrombotic state in COVID-19 patients.