Abstract
Respiratory infection diseases are among the major causes of morbidity and mortality in children. Diagnosis is focused on clinical presentation, yet signs and symptoms are not specific and there is a need for new non-radiating diagnostic tools. Among these, lung ultrasound (LUS) has recently been included in point-of-care protocols showing interesting results. In comparison to other imaging techniques, such as chest X-ray and computed tomography, ultrasonography does not use ionizing radiations. Therefore, it is particularly suitable for clinical follow-up of paediatric patients. LUS requires only 5–10 min and allows physicians to make quick decisions about the patient’s management. Nowadays, LUS has become an early diagnostic tool to detect pneumonia during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this narrative review, we show the most recent scientific literature about advantages and limits of LUS performance in children. Furthermore, we discuss the major paediatric indications separately, with a paragraph fully dedicated to COVID-19. Finally, we mention potential future perspectives about LUS application in paediatric respiratory diseases.
Highlights
Respiratory tract diseases remain a global challenge for paediatricians
We searched for articles on PubMed using the keywords “lung ultrasound”, “children”, “lungfordiseases”, “respiratory diseases”.“lung
Two common neonatal pathological conditions are transient tachypnoea of the newborn (TTN) and respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Both are characterized by dense confluent B-lines, representing different grades of pulmonary edema, and by alterations of the pleural line [16]
Summary
Respiratory tract diseases remain a global challenge for paediatricians. Pulmonary infections are a major source of morbidity and mortality in developing countries, and in the western world [1]. Paediatric guidelines are still relying mainly on clinical presentation and non-specific laboratory and imaging tests [2,3]. Among the latter, computed tomography (CT) is considered the gold standard for lung disease in the adults [4], yet it is not routinely performed in children, due to high ionizing radiation exposure [5,6,7]. 2020, LUS has played a crucial role in screening affected individuals, pointing out patients requiring hospitalization [12] In this narrative review we discuss the main application fields of LUS in childhood, with a focus on the advantages and limitations of this imaging technique. Paragraph about its present role in paediatric respiratory disease management and future perspectives
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