Low-dose CT chest scans could help detect pneumonia in at-risk patients while exposing them to only small amounts of radiation, a new study has found. The research, published in Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging, shows that ultra-low-dose scans can effectively detect pneumonia in patients with compromised immune systems, enabling doctors to treat the infection before it becomes life-threatening. According to the researchers, these scans expose patients to just 2% of the radiation dose used in a standard CT scan.

"This study paves the way for safer, AI-driven imaging that reduces radiation exposure while preserving diagnostic accuracy,” lead researcher Dr Maximiliano Klug, a radiologist with the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, said in a news release. He added that CT scans are the gold standard for detecting pneumonia but there are concerns regarding the risk posed by repeated exposure to radiation. There is a solution- ultra-low-dose CT scan. However, the problem is that these scans can be grainy and hard to read, researchers said.

Study Gives Solution To This

To overcome that, Klug's team developed an AI program that could help "de-noise" low-dose scans, making them sharper and easier to read. Between September 2020 and December 2022, 54 patients with compromised immune systems who had fevers underwent a pair of chest CT scans -- a normal dose scan and an ultra-low-dose scan. The AI program cleaned up the low-dose scan, and then both sets of images were given to a pair of radiologists for assessment. Radiologists had 100% accuracy in detecting pneumonia and other lung problems with the AI-cleaned low-dose scans, but 91% to 98% accuracy in examining the scans that hadn’t been improved through AI, results show.

"This pilot study identified infection with a fraction of the radiation dose," Klug said. "This approach could drive larger studies and ultimately reshape clinical guidelines, making denoised ultra-low dose CT the new standard for young immunocompromised patients.

How Can You Detect Pneumonia?

Pneumonia is a lung infection that causes the air sacs in the lungs to fill with fluid or pus and can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi. The symptoms can range from milk to severe, which includes:

Coughing with or without cough

Fever

Chills

Trouble breathing

Chest pain, especially when breathing deeply or coughing

Sweating or chills

Rapid heart rate

Loss of appetite

Bluish skin, lips, and nails

Confusion.

How to detect Pneumonia in coughing newborns and toddlers?

Pneumonia can severely affect newborns and young children as their lungs are comparatively more sensitive. As per Dr Goyal, young children can cough for various reasons including seasonal infections and tonsillitis, which is very common in this age group. But if they look visibly irritable and have poor sleep patterns, then parents must reach out to an expert. "I am not saying that parents must visit a hospital but any local paediatrician would be able to detect pneumonia in your kid.

As the true number of COVID-19 cases and deaths is believed to be higher than reported, a new study suggests that the actual toll of long COVID may also double than the current estimates.

The research, led by Mass General Brigham, found that many long COVID cases remain hidden because current surveillance systems rely heavily on diagnostic codes that fail to capture a large number of patients.

Using a novel AI algorithm, researchers analyzed medical records of nearly 460,000 COVID-19 patients across 58 hospitals in the United States. The findings showed that approximately one in six people — around 16 per cent — developed long COVID, translating to more than 18 million Americans.

The figures are nearly double current estimates and highlight the growing burden of chronic health conditions following COVID-19 infection. The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

“Over 10 million people with long COVID would go entirely undetected by the diagnostic code that health systems and policymakers rely on to track the disease burden,” said corresponding author Hossein Estiri, a faculty member in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine.

“The figures we uncovered are almost certainly an undercount,” he added.

Researchers noted that current diagnostic coding systems, including the ICD code U09.9 for post-COVID conditions, identify fewer than 7 per cent of long COVID patients.

What Did The Study Find?

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The study analyzed electronic health records from 457,950 patients who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 across four US regions — New England, Southeast Texas, Southern California and Western Pennsylvania.

Overall, 16.3 per cent of patients were identified with long COVID, with regional rates ranging from 13.6 per cent to 22.7 per cent.

The researchers also found significant regional differences in long COVID symptoms and related conditions, including varying rates of prediabetes, which is emerging as a possible long-term effect of COVID-19.

The study authors noted that undocumented infections — which became more common after widespread testing declined — were not included in the analysis. Patients without long-term medical records were also excluded, suggesting the actual burden of long COVID could be even higher.

“These patients are not absent from clinical care; they are absent from the diagnostic code that would identify them as long COVID patients,” said lead author Jiazi Tian, a data scientist in the Clinical Augmented Intelligence Group at Mass General Brigham.

“The cardiologist seeing new dysautonomia, the endocrinologist seeing new metabolic disease, the neurologist seeing unexplained cognitive complaints — some of these presentations are long COVID arriving without the label that would connect them to a COVID-19 infection,” Tian added.

What Is Long COVID?

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Long COVID refers to symptoms that continue for three months or longer after the initial COVID-19 infection.

Common symptoms include:

• Fatigue
• Brain fog
• Headaches
• Breathlessness
• Altered sense of smell or taste

Researchers say many long COVID conditions are still being studied, and some people may experience multiple symptoms at the same time.

US President Donald Trump this week underwent his third annual medical check-up during his second term and declared that it went “perfectly well”.

Trump, who turns 80 next month, visited the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a routine health examination on May 26. The medical check-up, conducted after about 13 months, reportedly lasted around 3.5 hours.

“Everything checked out PERFECTLY,” Trump wrote on social media.

However, neither Trump nor the White House has disclosed detailed medical findings, leading to renewed speculation about the health of the oldest American President.

The concerns come amid visible signs of deterioration observed during several public appearances. These include persistent bruising on his hands, micro naps during public meetings, slurred speech, and frequent factual mix-ups — all of which have raised questions about whether information regarding his health is being withheld.

The White House had earlier explained that the bruises on Trump’s hands were caused by “frequent handshaking” combined with aspirin use.

Trump Link His Conditions To Stroke

Doctors have also speculated that his slurred speech may indicate signs of a recent stroke.

Dr. Bruce Davidson, a professor at Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, discussed the issue during an appearance on The Daily Beast podcast. He said his interpretation was based on observing Trump’s physical behavior and speech patterns over time.

“Earlier in the year, there was video of him shuffling, and I thought that was weird,” he said on the podcast.

He suggested that such movement patterns can sometimes be seen in patients recovering from strokes.

Despite the speculation, Trump has continued to defend his mental sharpness and cognitive abilities.

“So I’ve taken (a cognitive test), and I’ve aced it all three times, I’ll tell you, because it is a positive thing,” Trump said. “It starts off with an easy question. And by the time you get to the middle, it gets tougher.”

Previous Medical Reports Declared Him Healthy

According to a White House summary of Trump’s previous annual medical examination in April last year, he was found to be in “excellent cognitive and physical health”.

“A comprehensive neurological examination revealed no abnormalities in his mental status, cranial nerves, motor and sensory functions, reflexes, gait, and balance. Cognitive function, assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), was normal with a score of 30 out of 30,” White House physician Captain Sean Barbabella wrote.

There were also tests for depression and anxiety, and Trump recorded scores “within the normal range for both,” although exact numbers were not disclosed.

Scans conducted in October also reportedly showed that Trump was in “excellent overall health”.

In a landmark order, the Supreme Court of India has recognized the Right to Trauma Care as an integral part of the Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The court issued comprehensive, time-bound directions covering the entire trauma chain of survival — comprising the inter-linked and coordinated chain of survival from the site of injury to definitive hospital care — aiming to strengthen emergency medical response and ensure timely access to trauma care across the country.

The directions, issued in SaveLIFE Foundation & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors., are binding on all 36 States and Union Territories. They cover the full spectrum of traumatic injuries, including:

• Road crashes

• Falls

• Burns

• Drowning

• Industrial accidents

• Fires

• Explosions

• Disaster-related trauma

In its the apex Court stated that “a uniform framework for trauma care, building public awareness, standardization of first aid skills, and proper Good Samaritan laws is required, since the right to trauma care of citizens is an integral part of the right to life enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.”

Why Is The Order Significant?

India records approximately 4.67 lakh accidental deaths every year from road crashes, falls, burns, drowning, industrial injuries, violence, and disasters.

Of these, road crashes alone account for approximately 1.77 lakh deaths annually. As per the 201st Report of the Law Commission of India, 50 per cent of those killed in road crashes could have been saved had they received timely emergency medical care.

The NITI Aayog-AIIMS Emergency and Injury Care Report (2021) found that at least 30% of all trauma-related deaths in India are attributable to delays in emergency care.

Despite the scale of preventable loss of life, India had no unified, enforceable national trauma care framework. Responses compiled from 34 States and Union Territories and placed before the Court revealed a deeply fragmented system, including inconsistent ambulance standards, unintegrated emergency helplines, absent trauma registries, ungraded hospital facilities, and patchy implementation of centrally mandated schemes.

The petition was filed by SaveLIFE Foundation in October 2024.

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What Has The Supreme Court Ordered?

The Supreme Court’s directions cover nine domains of the trauma chain of survival. All States and Union Territories are bound by these directions, with compliance to be reported before the Court-appointed monitoring authority.

1. Integration of a single national emergency number — 112 — within three months.
2. Establishment of grievance redressal systems to protect Good Samaritans who provide emergency assistance to trauma victims.
3. Establishment of a National Medical Rescue Protocol for trauma cases.
4. Addition of all registered ambulances — public and private — under the National Ambulance Code (AIS-125, December 2014). The Court also mandated GPS or Vehicle Location Tracking Device (VLTD) fitment and real-time integration with helpline 112, along with periodic audits covering response times, quality of care, equipment, and outcomes.
5. All States and Union Territories have been directed to adopt and implement the standardized Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) curriculum notified by the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) within three months.
6. States and Union Territories must establish State Trauma Registries linked to a Coordinated Trauma Registry within four months of the issuance of these guidelines.
7. All States and Union Territories have been directed to grade and designate all public and private medical facilities according to trauma care capacity within three months.
8. Cashless treatment for trauma victims under the PM RAHAT scheme.
9. All States and Union Territories have been directed to undertake sustained, multilingual, district-level awareness campaigns covering all the above within one month.

Compliance Mechanism

The Court has also directed that copies of its order be sent to the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories, who are required to submit Action Taken Reports to the Registry of the Supreme Court within the timelines prescribed for each direction.

The matter is expected to be listed after four months for issuance of further directions based on the compliance reports received.