Interstitial Lung Diseases

Sensitivity of Lung US compared to Chest CT for the screening of COVID-19: preliminary report of our experience

“…In particular, less than 70% of the pleura-pulmonary surface is visible with ultrasound 8,18 : part of the chest is US-probe-blinded, due to the overlying bone structures (i.e. ribs, scapulae); part of the lung is not adherent to pleural surface, preventing full US visibility of also big lesions due to the interposition of lung air content.…”

“…Subpleural consolidations may be visible in other viral pneumonia, non viral pneumonia, atelectasis and lung cancer 16 and their LUS patternconsisting in mixed hypo-echogenicity, with irregular, scarcely de ned borders -is non-speci c, not allows to distinguish one condition from another. Furthermore, some of these overlapping conditions may even be pre-existing in COVID-19 patients (especially in more severe cases) and LUS is often unable to discern a COVID-19 diagnosis in a population with such pre-existing cardiothoracic conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung disease, cardiovascular disease and malignancies with cardiothoracic involvement 18,20 .…”

The Role of Transthoracic Ultrasound in the novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): A Reappraisal. Information and Disinformation: Is There Still Place for a Scientific Debate?

“…However, not all the CT consolidation areas of pneumonitis are always adherent to the 70% of the superficial pleura or, is even accessible to the ultrasound beam. Likewise, the deeper CT GGOs-based lesions cannot be sonographically diagnosed on the basis of an ultrasound pattern of artifacts, such as the presence of a thickened hyperechoic pleural line with B-lines below, which is also common in many other lung diseases (i.e., pulmonary fibrosis or acute pulmonary edema) (17). (Figure 1) As a result, there is a risk of missing the detection of some lesions and/or to underestimate the actual disease's extent.…”

Lung ultrasound early detection and monitoring in COVID-19 pneumonia: fact and fiction

“…chest wall/aerated lung or gas/fluid-film). 4 . Sound waves interaction with gas microbubbles induces resonation in the trapped fluid film.…”