Pediatric lung ultrasound - pros and potentials

Abstract

Lung ultrasound (US) cannot be considered a new diagnostic imaging technique anymore, with some articles dating back 50 years. The question that hovers over it recently is why it is still not widely accepted, like chest radiography. So, have we wasted a lot of time without using lung US, or are we wasting our time using lung US? The main goals of this article are to underline all the advantages, potentials and reasons to use lung US in everyday clinical practice, but also to address the main concerns linked to this imaging tool. From the standpoint of an experienced pediatric radiologist from a tertiary health care children's hospital who has been performing this examination for more than 10 years on a daily basis, this article also addresses the most common applications of lung US, such as detection of pneumonia and neonatal lung diseases.

Keywords: Advantages; Lung; Neonate; Pediatrics; Ultrasound.