Please review my mother's X-ray and help us with the treatment.

Question

Hi doctor,

My mother is having fever and cold, slight cough for the last three days. Fever is coming every 10 hours and reducing with tablet Paracetamol. According to the local doctor's advice, we gave her capsule Doxt SL 100 mg twice daily and tablet Calpol for four days. Also, we gave her multivitamin tablets twice daily. She is having COVID Symptoms but not yet confirmed as the RT-PCR test result is awaited. I have attached the X-ray of my mother. Please review this X-ray and let me know if we need to go for higher investigation and treatment further as a precaution. Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Thank you for the query. I can understand your concern. According to your statement, your mother has been suffering from fever, cough, or cold for the last three days.

According to the X-ray report (attachment removed to protect the patient's identity), it seems normal to me according to her age. There are no ground-glass opacities that usually indicate pneumonia. There are no significant findings of pneumonia.

As she has already has undergone RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) for COVID-19, let us see the result. If she becomes COVID-19 positive, then go for HRCT (high resolution computed tomography) of the chest to detect the early stage of COVID pneumonia or exclude it. On the other hand, if her test result is negative and there are no clinical features, no additional investigations will be needed.

I suggest her with broad-spectrum antibiotic tablet Cefixime 400 mg twice daily to prevent any further secondary infections. Then, continue with her current medications.

Take care. Let me know if I can assist you further.