Abstract :
Background & Objective: Thoracic CT is the most common imaging modality used after screening
with chest x-ray in treatment of lung pathologies. But high cost, radiation, immobility & availability
restrict its widespread use. For many years transthoracic ultrasound is being used in examination of pleural
effusions in ICU patients. To study the role of chest ultrasonography in diagnosing pleural & parenchymal
pathologies in OPD patients this study was carried out.
Materials and Methods: 32 adult patientswithdyspnoea, cough & other chest symptoms coming to OPD
of pulmonary department of Santosh hospitals from January 2017 to July 2018 were enrolled in the study.
Results: In diagnosing pleural lung diseases- pleural effusion, pneumothorax, hydropneumothorax and
pleural thickening, US showed a sensitivity, specificity, PPV & NPV all of 100% and accuracy of 1.00. But
for parenchymal lesions taken all together (Consolidation, collapse, atelectasis, lung abscess, fibrocavitary
lesion with necrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, bleb/ bulla) it showed low accuracy of 0.62 with 42.86%
sensitivity, 86.36% specificity, 80% positive and 54.29% negative predictive values respectively.
Conclusion: Thoracic US offers fast, cheap, safe, radiation free, widely available, easily reproducible and
non-invasive diagnostic modality for evaluating pleural lung diseases in OPD patients. But low sensitivity
in diagnosis of parenchymal diseases is not encouraging.
Keyword :
USG, Pleural, Parenchymal lung diseases.