RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Transthoracic chest ultrasound in critically ill patients: Comparison with bedside chest radiography
JF European Respiratory Journal
JO Eur Respir J
FD European Respiratory Society
SP P4968
VO 44
IS Suppl 58
A1 Gamal Agmy
A1 Sherif Mohamed
A1 Yasser Gad
YR 2014
UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4968.abstract
AB PURPOSE:To compare the diagnostic performance of transthoracic ultrasound (TUS) and bedside chest radiography (CXR) for the detection of various pathological abnormalities in critically ill patients, using computed tomography (CT) as a gold standard.METHODS:Two hundred mechanically ventilated patients scheduled for CT and CXR were prospectively studied with a modified TUS protocol. Four pathological entities were evaluated: pleural effusion, pneumothorax, consolidation and interstitial syndrome.RESULTS:All patients were evaluated by the three imaging techniques. The sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of CXR were 55, 84, and 65% for pleural effusion, 40, 96, and 88% for pneumothorax, 40, 85, and 50% for consolidation and 42, 82, and 60% for interstitial syndrome respectively. The corresponding values for TUS were 100, 100, and 100% for pleural effusion, 100, 100, and 100% for pneumothorax, 100, 87, and 95% for consolidation, 95, 95, and 95% for interstitial syndrome respectively.CONCLUSIONS:In our ICU population TUS has a considerably better diagnostic performance than CXR for the diagnosis of common pathological disorders and may be used as an alternative to thoracic CT.Clinical Implication:Clinician-performed ultrasonography is a reliable tool in the diagnosis of common chest pathological entities. It has the advantage of portability, simplicity, rapidity, and similar sensitivity and specificity compared with CT.