Pediatric Chest Ultrasound
Lung ultrasound
Description
Neonates and premature babies represent the most vulnerable patient group owing to their limited ability to negotiate their “unfamiliar” life after delivery. Therefore, a special environment using incubators is set up to provide homeostasis, for example, temperature. “Minimal handling” is one of the major strategies in neonatology, and every action must be balanced between possible harms and benefits. Almost 40 years have passed since the introduction of ultrasound in clinical use. Starting with obstetrics, many areas of the body can be scanned safely by ultrasound; the most common investigations involve abdominal, urinary tract, gynecological, and obstetric sonography as well as echocardiography.
Children differ in many respects from adults, including in their psychology, communication, circulation, body composition, and proportions, to name just a few. Depending on age, a variable, usually considerable, amount of the skeleton is not calcified but consists of cartilage. This presents new challenges and possibilities for ultrasound. Owing to the reduced craniocaudal chest length compared to adults, the upper abdominal organs are less covered by the rib cage, and in combination with, for example, the small amount of intestinal fat content, high-quality images with excellent resolution can be obtained easily. In addition, Doppler ultrasound makes it possible to detect, monitor, and quantify flow. Therefore, challenging applications, like brain
ultrasound and spinal or hip sonography, are possible. Even better, all investigations can be conducted bedside, including those involving the use of incubators, making ultrasound the perfect imaging tool in neonatology.
Considering the high frequency of lung diseases in premature babies due to their inherent immaturity, it is a logical step to evaluate and describe the potential of lung ultrasound. For several years chest ultrasound was used for the evaluation of pleural effusions, consolidation, surfactant deficiency states, and pneumothorax detection. Enthusiastic pediatricians and radiologists used ultrasound also to guide interventions and insertions of peripheral lines; in particular, correct, central positioning can be monitored noninvasively by ultrasound using a subcostal approach.
What You Will Learn!
- Ultrasound theory
- Chest ultrasound terminology
- Pleural diseases
- Lung parenchymal diseases
Who Should Attend!
- Radiologist pediatrician