Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40317001›Full record

ArticleBMC pediatrics2025

Diagnostic accuracy of visual triage checklist in early recognition of COVID-19 cases in the pediatric population: A retrospective cohort study.

Ayesha Imtiaz, Abdullah Y Akkam, Lulwah H AlThumali, Ahlam M AlHarthi, Honey G Porte, Wesal S AlOsaimi, Maha M A AlAsmari, Rawda B G Salih, Biswadev Mitra

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Article in BMC pediatrics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Ayesha ImtiazPediatric Emergency Department, King Saud Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. dr.ayeshaimtiaz@gmail.com.ORCID 0009-0007-0630-6085
Abdullah Y AkkamPediatric Emergency Department, King Saud Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Lulwah H AlThumaliMaternity and Children's Hospital, Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Ahlam M AlHarthiTaif Children's Hospital, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Honey G PortePediatric Emergency Department, King Saud Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Wesal S AlOsaimiKing Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Maha M A AlAsmariPrince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Rawda B G SalihPediatric Emergency Department, King Saud Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Biswadev MitraSchool of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University, 553 St Kilda Rd, VIC, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-0508-2450

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDuring the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, healthcare facilities developed surveillance systems to identify patients suspected of having COVID-19 to segregate them during their hospital stay. As a part of this infection control strategy, the Ministry of Health in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia developed a visual triage (VT) checklist for early screening and isolation of patients in the hospital. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of this visual triage checklist in identifying children with COVID-19.

methodsThis was a retrospective, single center study that included all children who were tested for COVID-19 and were admitted to the hospital through the pediatric emergency department. The diagnostic accuracy of the visual triage checklist was assessed using COVID-19 PCR as the gold standard.

resultsA total of 1333 patients were included. The visual triage checklist had a sensitivity of 94.3% (95% CI: 87.2-98.1) and a specificity of 16.0% (95% CI: 14-18) with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.55 (0.53-0.58). The positive predictive value of the checklist was low at 7.35% (95% CI: 5.9-9.0).

conclusionThe VT checklist has high sensitivity, and is therefore potentially useful as an initial screening tool. However, the diagnosis of COVID-19 requires early secondary confirmation to avoid the large number of false positive cases associated with this tool.

Indexed as

ChecklistCOVID-19TriageAdolescentChildChild, PreschoolEarly DiagnosisEmergency Service, HospitalFemaleHumansInfantMaleRetrospective StudiesSARS-CoV-2Saudi ArabiaSensitivity and SpecificityCOVID-19 screeningDiagnostic accuracyInfection control strategyPediatricVisual triage checklist

Identifiers

PMID40317001
PMCPMC12046900

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.