Skip to main content
The Ultrasound Journal
Download PDF

Volume 6 Supplement 2

7th WINFOCUS Italian Congress on Ultrasound in Emergency, Anaesthesiology and Critical Care

The role of lung ultrasound in the diagnosis of pneumonia in acutely ill patients

Critical Ultrasound Journal volume 6, Article number: A2 (2014) Cite this article

Background

The differential diagnosis of patients in the emergency department who show symptoms of sepsis and suspected pneumonia may be difficult because of the low sensitivity and specificity of supine chest X rays (SCXR) and physical examination.

Objective

A retrospective assessment of the usefulness of lung ultrasound (LU) in the diagnosis of pneumonia in patients with signs and symptoms of sepsis and respiratory disease.

Patients and methods

2 groups of patients were considered:

Group A: 22 patients with a positive first SCXR (SCXR1) for pneumonia

Group B: 18 patients with a negative SCXR1 for pneumonia, but who were subsequently diagnosed with pneumonia during their hospital stay following a second SCXR (SCXR2) or CT.

Lung ultrasound examination was performed within 24 hours of admission, searching for direct and indirect echographical signs of pneumonia: focal B lines (FBL), pleural effusion (PE) and images of lung consolidation (LC).

Results

See table 1.

Table 1
Full size table

Conclusions

In our observational study, LU showed high sensitivity in the diagnosis of pneumonia:

95% in patients already diagnosed using SCXR, and 100 % of early diagnosis of pneumonia in patients whose diagnosis was subsequently confirmed during hospitalization.

References

  1. Lichtenstein DA: Relevance of Lung Ultrasound in the Diagnosis of Acute Respiratory Failure - The Blue Protocol. Chest 2008, 134: 117–125. 10.1378/chest.07-2800

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Essayag Y, et al.: Diagnostic value of chest radiographs in bedridden patients suspected of having pneumonia. Am J Med 2010, 123: 88. e 1–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Reissig A: Sonographic Diagnosis and Follow-up of Pneumoniai: A Prospective Study. Respiration 2007, 74: 537–547. 10.1159/000100427

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Mathis G: Thoraxsonography – Part II: Peripheral Pulmonary Consolidation. Ultrasound in Med. & Biol 1997,23(8):1141–1153. 10.1016/S0301-5629(97)00111-7

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Volpicelli G: Detection of sonographic B lines in patients with normal lungs or radiographic alveolar consolidation. Med Sci Monitor 2008,14(3):CR 122–128.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medicina 1 dept, Ospedale San Carlo Borromeo, Milano, Italy

    M Biancardi & B D’Agostino

  2. Medicina d’ Urgenza, Ospedale San Carlo Borromeo, Milano, Italy

    C Bonfardeci

Authors
  1. M Biancardi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. B D’Agostino
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. C Bonfardeci
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M Biancardi.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Biancardi, M., D’Agostino, B. & Bonfardeci, C. The role of lung ultrasound in the diagnosis of pneumonia in acutely ill patients. Crit Ultrasound J 6 (Suppl 2), A2 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/2036-7902-6-S2-A2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/2036-7902-6-S2-A2

Keywords

  • Pneumonia
  • Emergency Department
  • Hospital Stay
  • Differential Diagnosis
  • Early Diagnosis