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The following is a summary of “Clinical and ultrasound characteristics in patients with sars-cov-2 pneumonia, associated with hospitalization prognosis. e-covid project,” published in the December 2024 issue of Pulmonology by Ramon et al.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, chest computed tomography (CT) was the primary imaging test for diagnosing COVID-19 pneumonia, but access was limited in the hospital setting, and patients requiring primary care (PC) could only access chest X-rays. Several studies demonstrated the superiority of lung ultrasound (LUS) over chest X-rays and its comparability to CT, leading to its incorporation in assessing patients with COVID-19 in PC settings.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to develop predictive models of LUS patterns and sociodemographic and medical data to forecast lung area characteristics associated with hospitalizations and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions due to COVID-19.
They utilized primary care centers in Catalunya (Spain) from 05/12/2020 to 05/11/2021, collecting data from LUS, sociodemographic information, and medical history. Participants with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses via reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were included, and clinical LUS were performed within 7 days of diagnosis. Patients hospitalized for COVID-19 within 90 days prior to the new diagnosis were excluded.
The results showed the number of regions with pathological B lines predicted hospitalization, and the number of right lung regions with pathological B lines predicted ICU admission. In both cases, 2 or more affected lung areas were identified as the optimal classification point. The areas under the curve demonstrated good predictive capacity and consistency in both cohorts.
Investigators concluded that the study might contribute to establishing the prognostic value of ultrasound parameters, such as the number of lung areas affected, the presence of pulmonary condensation, and the irregularity of pleural effusion patterns, in patients with COVID-19, with potential applicability to other viral lung infections exhibiting similar ultrasound characteristics.
Source: bmcpulmmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12890-024-03439-2
