Comparison of chest ultrasound features to chest radiography in the diagnosis for pediatric tuberculosis: a cross-sectional study.

Introduction: robust data on the utility of chest ultrasound scans (CUS) for triage and diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis (TB) are lacking. Therefore, we aimed to compare CUS features to chest radiography (CXR), which is the recommended imaging modality in children with presumptive pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB).

Methods: eighty children ≤14 years of age with presumptive TB underwent CUS and CXR performed by two separate radiologists for each modality, who looked for the presence of consolidation, lymphadenopathy, and pleural effusion in both modalities. These were compared using Fisher's exact test for independence to determine whether there was a significant difference in the findings between the two modalities. Cohen's kappa coefficient was used to calculate the agreement between CXR and CUS. STATA version 15 was used for analysis.

Results: the proportions of children with abnormal findings (consolidation, lymphadenopathy, and pleural effusions) on CUS were 65% (52/80) and 81.3% (65/80) on CXR. Sixty-two-point-five percent (62.5% (33/52)) of those with abnormal findings on CUS and 51.3% (33/65) on CXR were likely to have TB. The overall agreement for these characteristics was moderate (κ-0.42). The differences in the findings of consolidation and pleural effusion were not statistically significant on either CXR or CUS, whereas that of lymphadenopathy was statistically significant (P<0.001).

Conclusion: chest ultrasound scans detected more abnormalities in children with presumptive TB. Overall, the findings were comparable to those of CXR, except for lymphadenopathy. Ultrasound is a promising triage and diagnostic tool for pediatric TB.