Assessment of ultrasound acoustic artifacts in patients with acute dyspnea: a multicenter study.

Background: Recent reports indicate that numerical assessment of B-lines during transthoracic ultrasound may aid the differential diagnosis of acute diffuse pleuropulmonary disorders.

Purpose: To determine whether B-lines are different in normal and diseased lungs and whether they can be used to discriminate between different types of pulmonary disorders in acutely ill patients.

Material And Methods: In this multicenter study, transthoracic ultrasonography was performed on 193 patients with acute dyspnea, 193 healthy non-smokers, and 58 patients who had undergone pneumonectomy for lung cancer.

Remote sonographic interpretation: comparison of standardized video clips to still images.

Objective: The aim of our study was to evaluate the role of standardized video clips compared with still images in the diagnostic accuracy of remote sonographic interpretation.

Methods: We compared the remote interpretation of sonographic examinations acquired with a standardized video clip approach to examinations performed with still images alone in 60 patients with various hepatic and extrahepatic pathologies.

Results: The use of video clips improved the diagnostic accuracy of sonographic studies interpreted remotely compared with the use of still images (p < 0.

Characterization of the normal pulmonary surface and pneumonectomy space by reflected ultrasound.

Interest has been increasing in the use of transthoracic ultrasound for the study of the pleuropulmonary disease. US imaging depends mainly on the physical interactions between ultrasound waves and the tissues being examined. In the thoracic region, the prescence of the chest wall and the air-containing pulmonary tissues cause various artifacts that strongly influence the resulting images.

Clinical application of transthoracic ultrasonography in inpatients with pneumonia.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical applicability of transthoracic ultrasound (TUS) in the diagnosis and follow-up of community acquired pneumonia (CAP).

Methods: We designed a pilot study in 15 patients and subsequently investigated 342 patients (206 men and 136 women) consecutively admitted to our Department from September 2005 to November 2009 because of radiographically diagnosed CAP. All patients underwent standard chest radiography, and consequently TUS.

Transthoracic ultrasound in the evaluation of pulmonary fibrosis: our experience.

The purpose of this study was to identify the ultrasonographic features of mild, moderate and severe pulmonary fibrosis. Between December 2005 and November 2007, transthoracic ultrasonography (US) was performed by a single operator with specific training in lung sonography on 84 consecutive patients (51 males and 33 females, aged 46 to 73 y) with pulmonary fibrosis. The obtained data were compared with those from a sample of 162 healthy subjects (78 men and 84 women, aged 18 to 76 y).