Sonographic appearance of bronchial carcinoma in atelectasis versus flooded lung

Abstract

Background: Sonography of central lung tumours is limited, when surrounded by gaseous lung. Only in cases of bronchial- pleural invasion or when atelectatic lung serves as acoustic contact it becomes imageable. Further it has been shown that One Lung Flooding (OLF) is safe and enables sonographically examination of lung in-vivo. For ultrasound guided interventions the tumour demarcation from lung tissue is essential. Therefore the visualization of lung tumours in flooded and atelectatic condition was assessed.