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Abstract Objective To investigate the clinical value of bedside lung ultrasound (LUS) in the non-invasive assessment of lung lesions in children with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP). Methods A total of 47 children with MPP hospitalized at our hospital from October 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023 were included. All children underwent LUS and chest CT examinations. The sonographic patterns of lung lesions were observed and scored using LUS, and the results were compared with chest CT as the “gold standard” to evaluate the comparability of LUS and chest CT in the diagnosis of pediatric MPP. Results The main LUS findings in children with MPP were interstitial edema (87.2%, 41/47) and lung consolidation (55.3%, 26/47), with bilateral involvement predominantly affecting the basal and dorsal regions of the lung. There was a moderate agreement between bedside LUS and chest CT in assessing lung lesions in children with MPP (Kappa = 0.609). The positive rate of MPP detected by LUS was 87.2% (41/47), and LUS’ accuracy in diagnosing MPP was 74.4% (35/47). In evaluating mild, moderate, and severe MPP, the sensitivity of LUS was 73.3%, 70.6%, and 72.7%; the specificity was 84.3%, 84.3%, and 100.0%; and the accuracy was 80.9%, 85.1%, and 93.6%, respectively. Conclusion LUS demonstrates a good performance in the assessment of lung lesions in children with MPP, and is worthy of further clinical promotion.
Zhang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.