Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic is a global healthcare crisis with unprecedented responses and unpredictable outcomes. An important cause of hospital burden and physician burnout around the world, it acted as a catalyst for accelerated digitalization, including Artificial Intelligence. As far as diagnosis is concerned, RT-PCR represents the gold standard, but has multiple flaws, the most important of them consisting of the current validity of the investigation. A controversial alternative might be chest Computed Tomography, especially in highly affected areas, and a high number of software algorithms have been designed in order to assist this process. The purpose of this review is to present the actual stage of Artificial Intelligence development in medical imaging, by highlighting the reliability of using computers for COVID-19 pneumonia detection on chest CT. At the same time, we aim to provide insights and deduct conclusions on how the current challenges in the field can be overcome and how expectations could be calibrated in order to advance diagnostic strategies with the purpose of fighting a healthcare crisis.
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