Purpose: To compare different commercial software in the quantification of Pneumonia Lesions in COVID-19 infection and to stratify the patients based on the disease severity using on chest computed tomography (CT) images. Materials and methods: We retrospectively examined 162 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. All cases were evaluated separately by radiologists (visually) and by using three computer software programs: (1) Thoracic VCAR software, GE Healthcare, United States; (2) Myrian, Intrasense, France; (3) InferRead, InferVision Europe, Wiesbaden, Germany. The degree of lesions was visually scored by the radiologist using a score on 5 levels (none, mild, moderate, severe, and critic). The parameters obtained using the computer tools included healthy residual lung parenchyma, ground-glass opacity area, and consolidation volume. Intraclass coefficient (ICC), Spearman correlation analysis, and non-parametric tests were performed. Results: Thoracic VCAR software was not able to perform volumes segmentation in 26/162 (16.0%) cases, Myrian software in 12/162 (7.4%) patients while InferRead software in 61/162 (37.7%) patients. A great variability (ICC ranged for 0.17 to 0.51) was detected among the quantitative measurements of the residual healthy lung parenchyma volume, GGO, and consolidations volumes calculated by different computer tools. The overall radiological severity score was moderately correlated with the residual healthy lung parenchyma volume obtained by ThoracicVCAR or Myrian software, with the GGO area obtained by the ThoracicVCAR tool and with consolidation volume obtained by Myrian software. Quantified volumes by InferRead software had a low correlation with the overall radiological severity score. Conclusions: Computer-aided pneumonia quantification could be an easy and feasible way to stratify COVID-19 cases according to severity; however, a great variability among quantitative measurements provided by computer tools should be considered.

中文翻译：

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胸部CT计算机辅助定量检测COVID-19感染中的PNEUMONIA病变：三种商业软件之间的比较

目的：比较不同商业软件对COVID-19感染的肺炎病变定量，并使用胸部计算机断层扫描（CT）图像根据疾病严重程度对患者进行分层。材料和方法：我们通过逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）测试回顾性检查了162例确诊COVID-19感染的患者。所有病例均由放射科医生（目测）并使用三种计算机软件程序分别评估：（1）Thoracic VCAR软件，美国GE Healthcare；（2）法国Intrasense的Myrian；（3）InferRead，InferVision Europe，德国威斯巴登。放射科医生使用5个等级的评分（无，轻度，中度，严重和批评）对病变程度进行视觉评分。使用计算机工具获得的参数包括健康的残余肺实质，毛玻璃样混浊区域和巩固体积。进行了类内系数（ICC），Spearman相关分析和非参数检验。结果：Thoracic VCAR软件无法对26/162（16.0％）的患者进行体积分割，Myrian软件不能对12/162（7.4％）的患者进行，而InferRead软件不能对61/162（37.7％）的患者进行体积分割。在通过不同计算机工具计算出的剩余健康肺实质体积，GGO和固结体积的定量测量中，检测到很大的变异性（ICC范围为0.17至0.51）。总体放射学严重程度评分与通过ThoracicVCAR或Myrian软件获得的剩余健康肺实质体积中等相关，通过ThoracicVCAR工具获得的GGO面积和通过Myrian软件获得的合并体积。InferRead软件的定量体积与总体放射学严重程度评分之间的相关性较低。结论：计算机辅助肺炎定量可能是一种根据严重程度分层COVID-19病例的简便方法。但是，应考虑计算机工具提供的定量测量之间的巨大差异。