Lung ultrasound score for pediatric pneumonia surveillance

Background: Pneumonia is the principal cause of death among children worldwide. Lung ultrasound (LUS) was demonstrated to be reliable tool for diagnosis and community acquired child pneumonia assessment. An objective parameter like a pneumonia LUS score might be use for pneumonia monitoring. Our aim was to present the usefulness of a newly developed LUS score for pediatric pneumonia (PedPne) in monitoring community acquired pneumonia in children. Methods: Children referred with suspicion of pneumonia were screened for the study after signing the informed consent. Besides clinical assessment, LUS was performed: at cinitial presentation, in the 3rd -5th day and also in the 7th -10th day. Inflammatory biomarkers: C reactive protein level, procalcitonine, ESR rate and leucocytes count were also evaluated. The score PedPne was used for initial evaluation and for further examinations. Spearman correlation test was used for evaluation of correlation between the PedPne score and inflammatory markers. Results: 321 patients were screened and 81 were diagnosed with consolidated pneumonia. The median PnePed LUS score was 7.31. A very strong positive correlation was found between the LUS PedPne score and CRP, PCT and leucocytes count, in several days of pneumonia evolution. Conclusion: Lung ultrasound pneumonia score was a reliable parameter in the evaluation of pneumonia, and has a strong correlation with inflammatory biomarkers. PedPne LUS score can be used as a non-invasive surrogate parameter of inflammation in pediatric pneumonia.