Application of Lung Ultrasonography in the Diagnosis of Childhood Lung Diseases

INTRODUCTION Lung diseases are the most common conditions in newborn infants and children and are also the primary causes of death in children younger than 5 years old.[1] Therefore,accurate and timely diagnosis is extremely important in order to enable efficient treatment and improve the prognosis of patients with lung diseases.In the past,the diagnosis of lung disease mainly depended on chest radiography （CR） and/or computed tomography （CT）.

Role of Ultrasound Lung Comets in the Diagnosis of Acute Heart Failure in Emergency Department: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Objective A new technique of transthoracic lung ultrasonography(TLS) has emerged and demonstrated promising results in acute heart failure diagnosis at an early stage. However, the diagnostic value of ultrasound lung comets(ULCs) for acute heart failure(AHF) performed in busy emergency department(ED) is uncertain. The present meta-analysis aimed to assess the diagnostic efficiency of ULCs in AHF. Methods We conducted a search on online journal databases to collect the data on TLS performed for diagnosing AHF published up to the end of July 2017. The sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio(PLR), negative likelihood ratio(NLR), and summary receiver operating characteristic(SROC) curve were calculated. The post-test probability of AHF was calculated by using Bayes analysis. Results We enrolled a total of 15 studies involving 3,309 patients. The value of sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR, DOR, area under the SROC curve, and Q* index was 85%, 91%, 8.94, 0.14, 67.24, 0.9587, and 0.9026, respectively. We detected significant heterogeneity among included studies, and therefore, all these results were analyzed under the random-effect model. We also explored possible sources of heterogeneity among the studies by using meta-regression analysis. Results suggest that the time interval between patient’s admission to bedside TLS examination was closely related to TLS accuracy. Conclusion This meta-analysis demonstrated that detecting ULCs is a convenient bedside tool and has high accuracy for early AHF diagnosis in ED. TLS could be recommended to be applied for early diagnosis of AHF in ED.

FACE-HF: Focused Assessment by Chest Sonography and Echocardiography in Acute Heart Failure Patients

Background: Acute heart failure (AHF) is a life-threatening condition that necessitates urgent evaluation and treatment with an urgent need for hospital admission. Among the available imaging modalities, echocardiography is the method of choice due to its feasibility and cost-effectiveness. Lung ultrasonography in emergency department, critical and cardiac care units is becoming popular. The present study aimed to assess the value of the focused echocardiography and lung ultrasound protocol for guiding treatment and its effect on the hospitalization period in AHF patients admitted to the CCU, 6 months re-hospitalization and mortality. Methods: This study included 40 consecutive patients admitted to the Cardiology and Angiology department after disposition from the emergency department at Alexandria main university hospital in Egypt with the diagnosis of (AHF). Patients were divided into 2 groups, 20 patients received the standard treatment while the other group received a modification of medication doses according to daily imaging changes. All patients were followed up for 6 months to assess the 6 months HF rehospitalization and death rates. Results: Group II patients had a significantly shorter duration of hospitalization;6.45 ± 2.01 days compared to 9.10 ± 3.82 days among group I patients (P = 0.02). There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding the 6 months rehospitalization and death rates. Conclusion: The focused echocardiography and lung ultrasound-guided therapy for AHF patients resulted in a shorter duration of hospitalization without increased adverse events.

COVID-19 pneumonia:A review of typical radiological characteristics

Coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)was first discovered after unusual cases of severe pneumonia emerged by the end of 2019 in Wuhan(China)and was declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization in January 2020.The new pathogen responsible for the infection,genetically similar to the beta-coronavirus family,is known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2(SARS-CoV-2),and the current gold standard diagnostic tool for its detection in respiratory samples is the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test.Imaging findings on COVID-19 have been widely described in studies published throughout last year,2020.In general,ground-glass opacities and consolidations,with a bilateral and peripheral distribution,are the most typical patterns found in COVID-19 pneumonia.Even though much of the literature focuses on chest computed tomography(CT)and X-ray imaging and their findings,other imaging modalities have also been useful in the assessment of COVID-19 patients.Lung ultrasonography is an emerging technique with a high sensitivity,and thus useful in the initial evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 infection.In addition,combined positron emission tomography-CT enables the identification of affected areas and follow-up treatment responses.This review intends to clarify the role of the imaging modalities available and identify the most common radiological manifestations of COVID-19.