Utility of lung ultrasound in following up COVID-19 patients over a 3-month period

Abstract

Lung ultrasound (LUS) examination has been shown to have a potential diagnostic and prognostic role in SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia disease. We evaluated the role of a new LUS score protocol (14 windows evaluation, graded score 0–3) in patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia and the association of LUS patterns with clinical findings in acute stage and after three month from disease recovery. First, a cohort of 52 consecutive laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 patients underwent LUS examination upon the admission in an Internal Medicine ward. A total LUS score as the sum of the scores at each explored area was computed,and we investigated the association between LUS score and the clinical worsening. Then 47 patients who survived the first COVID-19 wave and who underwent a 3-stage LUS examination (T0 “access to ER”; T1 “ward hospitalization”; T2 “post-COVID outpatient”) were enrolled for the longitudinal study. In the acute stage, we observed that a median LUS score above 24 was associated with an almost 6-fold increase in the odds of worsening. In the longitudinal observation, we seen that LUS score's variation between T0 and T2 resulted to be statistically significant, as well a difference of LUS score between patients with or without pleural effusion, maintained over time.