Lung ultrasound findings in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia
Changyang Xing, Qiaoying Li, Hong Du, Wenzhen Kang, Jianqi Lian, Lijun Yuan
Abstract
Since December 2019, the outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new coronavirus [1], which was later identified as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19), has infected more than 410,000 patients globally according to the situation report of World Health Organization. Lung ultrasound is an important tool for the diagnosis and follow-up of pneumonia in neonates, children, and adults [2,3,4]. Recent CT reports demonstrated that most of the lesions were distributed peripherally in the lung, which facilitates detection by lung ultrasound [5, 6]. In this study, we characterize the lung ultrasound findings COVID-19 pneumonia, and study the relationship between the ultrasound findings and clinical severity and the time-course of disease progress. Bedside lung ultrasound was performed to detect B-lines, lung consolidation, and pleural line abnormalities at 5 areas in each lung. Vascular ultrasound was also performed to detect potential deep vein thrombosis.