Efficacy of chest ultrasonography versus chest X ray in the diagnosis of pediatric pneumonia / Ezzabouha Fayez Abd Alrahman Darwish Hussien ; Supervised Eman Ali Abdalaziz , Maha Fathey Sheba , Hala Hussien Mansour

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Pediatrics

Background: Pneumonia is one of the most common chief complaints for which children seek medical care.Respiratory compromise in children must be promptly recognized and aggressively treated because children may become fatigued and decompensate quickly.The use of lung ultrasonography (LUS) has been suggested to increase the feasibility and accuracy of community acquired pneumonia diagnosis. LUS is fast, radiation-free, repeatable, inexpensive and easily performed at the bedside. In addition, LUS has been largely used for the diagnosis of several lung problems, including pneumonia. Experience with LUS in children has grown in recent years. Objective: To evaluate the ability of chest ultrasound (US) in detecting lung consolidation in comparison to the current gold standard (chest X-rays). Methods: It is prospective study; was performed on 100 Egyptian children in the general pediatric wards and PICUs of Children's University Hospital, Cairo University. For every child included in the study, a chest x-ray and a chest US were performed. Results: The detection rate of consolidative patches, air bronchogram, pleural effusion and lung abscesses was higher in ultrasound compared to the x-ray technique. Conclusion: Lung ultrasound is safe and accurate for the diagnosis suspected cases of community acquired pneumonia and it is more sensitive than chest X-ray and allows a radiation free technique for detection of consolidations in children, thus reducing radiation exposure in this population

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