Lung Ultrasound in the Diagnosis of Infective Lung Diseases

Lung ultrasound (LUS) is a real-time, readily available, non-invasive and free of ionizing radiation imaging modality. These characteristics have contributed to its increasing popularity and, much enthusiasm and potential overestimating of this imaging method as an irreplaceable role for bedside diagnosis of different lung infective diseases. LUS is the method of choice for the assessment of pleural effusion, as even small quantities of liquid can be detected. It may be also useful in the detection, despite without characterization, of lung lesions adhering to the 70% of the echographically visible pleural surface. Moreover, LUS is particularly useful in thoracentesis and in peripheral lung lesions biopsy, as the needle can be guided by US in real-time allowing risk-free diagnosis and/or treatment. It is essential in-depth knowledge of LUS artifacts and their value in diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, in order to warn against inappropriate indications and misleading information.

Here, the goal of this Research Topic is to evaluate to what extent ultrasound can be used in daily clinical routine for the study of inflammatory/infectious pleuro-lung diseases. The utility and diagnostic accuracy of LUS in such kind of diseases can be assessed by performing a systematic comparison between what is visible on pleuro-pulmonary LUS and what is ascertained on Chest-CT (gold standard), according to what is recommended by the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) statements. In addition, we would like to overview the usefulness of thoracic ultrasound in interventional procedures (thoracentesis and biopsies) in infectious lung diseases.

In this Research Topic we are interested in receiving Original Articles, Brief Reports and Review Articles including but not limited to the following topics:

• the definition of the diagnostic accuracy of pulmonary ultrasound in viral and bacterial pneumonia including COVID-19, compared to the gold standard
• the assessment of potential utility of LUS in monitoring lesion trends over time when there is a perfect correspondence between what is ascertained on CT and what is visible on ultrasound (i.e. consolidation strictly adherent to the superficial pleura)
• the role of LUS in the study of pleural effusions and their drainage (thoracentesis and thoracotomy tube) or in the guided biopsy of lesions attached to the parietal pleura (and therefore accessible by ultrasound) and suspected for malignancy.

For this Research Topic, Dr. Carla Maria Irene Quarato has been recognized as a Research Topic Coordinator for her crucial role in assembling this project.