ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the accuracy of ultrasound in diagnosing pneumothorax taking CT chest as gold standard.

Design: It was a cross sectional survey.

Study Settings: This study was carried out at Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Thoracic Surgery at Children Hospital & Institute of Child Health, Lahore over 12 months from 13-08-2019 to 12-08-2020.

Patients and Methods: This study involved 235 both male and female patients aged between 18-75 years referred from thoracic surgery department with clinical suspicion of pneumothorax. Ultrasound of all these cases was carried out and pneumothorax was labeled on negative lung sliding and comet tail artifacts and absence of seashore sign and presence of barcode sign. Later CT chest was performed and diagnosis of pneumothorax was confirmed. Results of CT scan were considered as gold standard while the diagnosis of pneumothorax on chest sonography was adjudged consequently as true/false and positive/negative. An informed written consent was obtained in each case.

Results: There was a male predominance (M:F; 4:1) with mean age of 46.3±13.1 years among patients with pneumothorax. Ultrasound diagnosed pneumothorax in 148 (63.0%) cases while pneumothorax was confirmed in 164 (69.8%) cases on CT chest Ultrasound was found 88.4% sensitive, 95.8% specific and 90.6% accurate with negative and positive predictive values of 78.2% and 98.0% respectively.

Conclusion: Chest sonography was established as an exceedingly sensitive and specific modality for the evaluation of pneumothorax. Its non-invasive and portable nature and lack of radiation risk further make it idyllic for the diagnostic evaluation of pneumothorax in suspected cases in future clinical practice.