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Review
. 2025 Feb 27;6(Suppl 2):100420.
doi: 10.1016/j.opresp.2025.100420. eCollection 2024 Oct.

Thoracic Ultrasound in Others Scenarios: An Expanding Tool

Beatriz Romero-Romero  1 , Maribel Botana-Rial  2   3   4 , Raquel Martínez  5 , Teresa Elias-Hernandez  6   7   8 , Ricardo M Rodrigues-Gómez  9 , M Mar Valdivia  10
Affiliations
Review

Thoracic Ultrasound in Others Scenarios: An Expanding Tool

Beatriz Romero-Romero et al. Open Respir Arch. .

Abstract
in English, Spanish

Modern management of thoracic disease is dominated by ultrasound assessment with strong evidence supporting its use in many clinical settings, providing both diagnostic and procedural. Thoracic ultrasound is a pivotal step in the management of chronic lung disease and pulmonary vascular disease, in early assessment as in therapeutic monitoring. Development and validation of novel ultrasound biomarkers of activity and prognostic, especially those linked to advanced ultrasound techniques, are expected in the coming years. Assessing and treating respiratory muscle dysfunction is crucial for patients with both acute and chronic respiratory failure. To explore novel techniques, including imaging with ultrasound is important. Artificial intelligence (AI) excels at automatically recognizing complex patterns and providing quantitative assessment for imaging data, showing high potential to assist physicians in acquiring more accurate and reproducible results. Finally, a training system with structured proficiency and competency standards, about the use of TU is necessary. We offer our perspective on the challenges and opportunities for the clinical practice in other scenarios.

El tratamiento moderno de la enfermedad torácica está dominado por la evaluación ecográfica, con una sólida evidencia que respalda su uso en muchos entornos clínicos, proporcionando tanto diagnóstico como capacidad terapéutica. La ecografía torácica es un paso fundamental en el manejo de la enfermedad pulmonar crónica y la enfermedad vascular, tanto en la evaluación temprana como en el seguimiento terapéutico. Se espera que en los próximos años se desarrollen y validen nuevos biomarcadores ecográficos de actividad y pronóstico, especialmente aquellos vinculados a técnicas ecográficas avanzadas. La evaluación y el tratamiento de la disfunción muscular respiratoria es crucial para los pacientes con insuficiencia respiratoria aguda y crónica. Es importante explorar nuevas técnicas, incluida la obtención de imágenes con ecografía. La inteligencia artificial (IA) se destaca por reconocer automáticamente patrones complejos y proporcionar una evaluación cuantitativa de los datos de imágenes, mostrando un alto potencial para ayudar a los médicos a obtener resultados más precisos y reproducibles. Finalmente, es necesario un sistema de capacitación con estándares estructurados de competencia y habilidad sobre el uso de la ecografía torácica. Ofrecemos nuestra perspectiva sobre los desafíos y las oportunidades para la práctica clínica de la ecografía torácica en otros escenarios.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; Echocardiography; Physiotherapy; Pulmonary diseases; Thoracic ultrasound; Training.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Patient with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Ultrasound image showing irregular pleural thickening (red arrow), multiple B lines (green arrow).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Two pulmonary infarcts visualized in posterobasal areas.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Transthoracic echocardiographic parameters in the assessment of pulmonary hypertension. Adapted from Humbert M. European Heart Journal (2022) 00, 1–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac237. Ao, aorta; IVC, inferior vena cava; LA, left atrium; LV, left ventricle; PH, pulmonary hypertension; RA, right atrium; RAP, right atrial pressure; RV, right ventricle; RVOT AT, right ventricular outflow tract acceleration time; sPAP, systolic pulmonary artery pressure; TAPSE, tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion; TR, tricuspid regurgitation; TRV, tricuspid regurgitation velocity. aRefers to collapse on inspiration.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Atelectasis before physiotherapy (1) and after physiotherapy (2).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Artificial intelligence application algorithm.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Phantom for learning about ultrasound-Guided Fine-Needle Aspiration or ultrasound-Guided Biopsy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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