Accuracy of Lung Ultrasound for the Diagnosis of Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Emergency Room Patients

Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) is a major problem in Emergency Department (ED). Diagnosis relies on combination of clinical symptoms and results of chest radiography (CR). Patients' management (treatment, support) depends on delay and quality of the diagnosis. However, signs and symptoms are highly aspecific and interpretation of CR is subject to frequent discrepancies. Then diagnosis of CAP may be uncertain; therefore, overdiagnosis is frequent and leads to over-use of antimicrobial therapy; missing diagnosis is also deleterious and delays adequate treatment including antibiotics. CT scan completes CR and helps clinician making properly diagnosis of CAP; obtaining CT in a 4-hour time-lapse allows better diagnosis and management as accurate as an independent expert adjudication committee does. However availability of CT as well as radiation interrogates on the benefit that Lung Ultrasounds (LUS) may have in diagnosis strategy of suspected CAP. LUS is a noninvasive easy-to-use device whose practice is widely endorsed worldwide by emergency medicine associations and societies. Additionally, previous studies advocate for the use of LUS for diagnosis of CAP in the ED. Therefore the Promotor developed a study to compare LUS and CR as a primary imaging for diagnosis of CAP at the ED.