Can lung ultrasound differentiate between bacterial and viral pneumonia in children?

Abstract Purpose This study evaluates whether LUS can differentiate between bacterial and viral pneumonia in children and thus affect their management. Methods The prospective, cross‐sectional, analytical study included 200 children under 12 years of age (excluding neonates) with clinical suspicion of pneumonia who had undergone a chest radiograph (CR). The CR and LUS findings were classified as bacterial or viral pneumonia. The final diagnosis was made on the basis of a combination of clinical profile, available routine laboratory investigations and CR diagnosis which was taken as the gold standard for the study and LUS was compared with the gold standard. Results LUS has a high sensitivity (91%; 95% CI [84‐96]) and specificity (91.3%; 95% CI [84‐96]) in diagnosing bacterial pneumonia with a high positive predictive value (91.9%; 95% CI [85‐96]) and negative predictive value (90.3%; 95% CI [82‐95]). For diagnosing viral pneumonia, the sensitivity of LUS was 78.4%; (95% CI [68‐86]), specificity was high (90.4%; 95% CI [83‐95]) and so was the positive predictive value (87.3%; 95% CI [78‐94]) and negative predictive value (91.3%; 95% CI [84‐96]). Conclusion LUS has a high accuracy in differentiating between bacterial and viral pneumonia in children and can help in their management by avoiding an ill‐advised use of antibiotic therapy.