Open AccessThe emerging role of lung ultrasound in COVID-19 pneumonia
Author(s) -
Gemma Lepri,
Martina Orlandi,
Chiara Lazzeri,
Cosimo Bruni,
Michael Hughes,
Manuela Bonizzoli,
Yukai Wang,
Adriano Peris,
Marco MatucciCerinic
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
european journal of rheumatology :/european journal of rheumatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2147-9720
pISSN - 2148-4279
DOI - 10.5152/eurjrheum.2020.2063
Subject(s) - medicine , pneumonia , intensive care medicine , lung , acute respiratory distress , connective tissue , covid-19 , respiratory distress , lung ultrasound , fibrosis , pulmonary fibrosis , radiology , pathology , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty)
In the last decades lung ultrasound (LUS) has become of crucial importance in the evaluation and monitoring of a widely range of pulmonary diseases. One of the major benefits which favours this examination, is that this is a non-invasive, low-cost and radiation-free imaging modality which allows repeated imaging. LUS plays an important role in a wide range of pathologies, including cardiogenic oedema, acute respiratory distress syndrome and fibrosis. Specific LUS findings have proved useful and predictive of acute respiratory distress syndrome which is of particular relevance in the suspicion and monitoring of patients with lung disease. Furthermore, several studies have confirmed the role of LUS in the screening of interstitial lung diseases in connective tissue diseases. Given these data, LUS will likely play an important role in the management of COVID-19 patients from identification of specific abnormalities corresponding to definite pneumonia phases and CT scans findings. In addition, LUS could allow reduction in the exposure of health-care workers to potential infection. Herein, we provide a summary on emerging role of lung ultrasound in COVID-19 pneumonia.