Abstract
Purpose
Modern lung ultrasound (US) is mainly applied not only in critical care, emergency medicine, and trauma surgery, but also in pulmonary and internal medicine. In some cases, pneumothorax (PTX) distinguishes with bullous diseases. In this study, we aimed to discuss the success of US on detecting PTX versus bullae.
Methods
We performed a prospective blinded study. Patients underwent thorax computed tomography (CT) if bullae or pneumothorax could not be differentiated from the chest radiography. An emergency medicine specialist trained in lung US and unaware of x-ray and CT findings performed US. All patients US performed from anterior and lateral wall.
Results
Final study population included 81 patients. The sensitivity of the presence of pleural sliding in the diagnosis of bullae was 97.50% (86.84–99.94%), and specificity was 100.0% (91.4–100.0%).
Conclusion
In conclusion, direct visualisation of ultrasonographic pleural sliding can be a good tool for differentiating bullae and pneumothorax.
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Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. All data and materials used in this study are available.
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Contributions
Design of the work Sinan Karacabey, Sercan Yalcinli
Data collection Bayram Metin, Yavuz Selim Intepe, Fatih Erkoc, Sener Yildirim
Data Analysis Erkman Sanrı, Sener Yildirim
Drafting Article Sinan Karacabey, Erkman Sanrı
Revised and approved the version to be published Bayram Metin, Yavuz Selim Intepe, Fatih Erkoc
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Informed consent
Written informed consent was obtained from patients for this study.
Ethical approval
Ethical approval was obtained from the institutional review boards (604-02). The study protocol conforms to the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki as reflected in a priori approval by the institution’s human research committee.
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Karacabey, S., Sanri, E., Metin, B. et al. Use of ultrasonography for differentiation between bullae and pneumothorax. Emerg Radiol 26, 15–19 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10140-018-1640-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10140-018-1640-9