Introduction
Chest ultrasonography (US) is a promising tool in the evaluation of chest diseases as it is fast, user-friendly, noninvasive, easily reproducible, portable, widely available, inexpensive, and involves no ionizing radiation.
Aim
To assess the role of chest US in the diagnosis of acute chest disorders in children comparing it with conventional chest radiographs (CXR).
Patients and methods
This was a prospective, observational study, conducted at the Pediatric and Chest Departments of Al-Hussein and Sayed Galal, Al-Azhar University Hospitals, Cairo. Children aged from 1 month to 12 years, suffering from acute respiratory distress were included in this study. Full history taking, clinical examination, CXR, and chest US were performed for each patient. Computed tomography chest was performed in some cases where there was a doubt in diagnosis (e.g. lung abscess, mediastinal mass, and small pneumothorax). The main outcome was the correspondence between chest US findings and the patients’ final diagnosis based on history, clinical examination, laboratory results, and radiological finding.
Results
A total of 100 patients were included, 66 men and 34 women. Thirty patients had uncomplicated pneumonia, 17 patients had pneumonia complicated with effusion, 13 patients had nonpneumonic effusion, 12 patients had pneumothorax, four patients had lung collapse, 19 patients had acute bronchiolitis, three patients had lung abscess, and two cases had mediastinal masses. Chest US was true positive for the diagnosis in 83% of cases compared with 77% by the CXR (the conventional imaging technique).
Conclusion
The chest US is a valid, simple, safe, available, inexpensive method, and comparable to CXR for the diagnosis of acute chest disorders in children.
Recommendation
This study recommends administration of chest US as a diagnostic tool in the management of acute chest disorders in children.