Lung ultrasound was an effective technique in diagnosing childhood pneumonia when conducted by experienced sonographers Reviewing paper: Tsou PY, Chen KP, Wang YH, Fishe J, Gillon J, Lee CC et… Click to show full abstract
Lung ultrasound was an effective technique in diagnosing childhood pneumonia when conducted by experienced sonographers Reviewing paper: Tsou PY, Chen KP, Wang YH, Fishe J, Gillon J, Lee CC et al . Diagnostic accuracy of lung ultrasound performed by novice vs advanced sonographers for pneumonia in children: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Acad Emerg Med 2019;26:1074–1088. How accurate is ultrasound in the diagnosis of pneumonia? How accurate is the result when comparing sonographers with varying levels of experience? Study design: systematic review and meta-analysis; 25 studies analysed encompassing 3353 patients; 18 prospective cohort studies, 5 retrospective cohort studies, 1 randomised controlled trial (RCT) and 1 case–control study. Patients: paediatric patients presenting with symptoms of pneumonia; this included those with ‘rales’, tachypnoea, dyspnoea, cough, decreased breath sounds or fever. Intervention: lung ultrasound versus standard means of diagnosing pneumonia. Standard means varied between studies, ranging from clinical diagnosis only in 2 studies to a combination of clinical diagnosis and imaging in 6 studies; 20 used chest x-ray (CXR) alone and 1 used CT chest alone. The level of ultrasound training ranged from 1 hour to 7 days in the novice group; expert ultrasonographers had over 7 days–25 …
               
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