Lung Ultrasound as a Predictor of Mechanical Ventilation in Neonates Older Than 32 Weeks

Neonatal respiratory distress prognosis may be difficult to estimate at admission. Lung ultrasound is a useful diagnostic tool that is quick, requires little training and is radiation free. This study analyzes whether early lung ultrasound can predict respiratory failure.

Methods This study was conducted from January to December 2014 at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain), a third-level hospital with 3300 births per year and a neonatal intensive care unit with annual admission of 700 patients.

Local institutional review board of Hospital Sant Joan de Déu approved the protocol (project approval number PIC-07-15) and written informed consent was obtained from all parents.

Patients older than 32 weeks admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit with respiratory distress who were not on invasive mechanical ventilation (MV) were eligible for recruitment.

A single operator, a neonatologist skilled in lung and heart sonography, performed the examinations. Images were then analysed by another neonatologist with less experience in LUS. He was blind to the perinatal history and chest radiography of the newborns and unaware of the clinical diagnosis. Infants were from a non-consecutive convenience sample recruited when the operator was available for the execution of LUS in the first 2 hours of life.