Lung rockets and pulmonary functions

Abstract

Introduction The ultrasound (US) of the chest is useful in the diagnosis of different parenchymal, pleural, and chest wall diseases. The US is preferred because no radiation is used (safe during pregnancy), is not expensive, is easy portability, provides real-time imaging, and has the ability to make a dynamic imaging. Aim This study aimed for the correlation between B-lines and spirometry, arterial blood gases, 6-minute walk test (6MWT), and pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) in patients with diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD). Design A prospective study was conducted. Setting The study was conducted at Fayoum University Hospital in Egypt between January 2017 and June 2017. Patients and methods This study was done on 60 patients with DPLD. They were subjected to a full medical history, a detailed clinical examination, high-resolution computed tomography, echocardiography, arterial blood gases analysis, spirometry, 6MWT, and chest US. Results The studied group showed female predominance, with 54 (90%) patients. They had a wide range of age from 20 to 75 years, and their mean age was 47.5±13.6 years. Most of them were involved in breeding birds, exposed to biomass, and nonsmokers. The studied patients had bilateral B-lines. The number of B-lines was positively correlated with PaO2, 6MWT, forced vital capacity, and PASP and negatively correlated with high-resolution computed tomography affection, whereas the distance between B-lines was inversely correlated with each of PaO2, numbers of B-line, 6MWT, forced vital capacity, and PASP. Most of patients had irregular and thickened pleura (71.6%), and abolished lung sliding was seen in 51.6%. Conclusion Chest US may be used in the evaluation of DPLD. Multiple B-lines with thickened and irregular pleural line are suggestive of DPLD.