Clinical Trial: Lung Ultrasound in the Evaluation of Pneumothorax Size

Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Observational



Official Title: Accuracy of Lung Ultrasound in the Prediction of Pneumothorax Volume Assessed by CT Scan

Brief Summary:

Background

  • Assessment of the percentage of lung collapse is crucial in the therapeutic decision-making of pneumothorax.
  • The methods normally used to this purpose are radiological. Computerized tomography scan (CT) is highly accurate because it allows the exact evaluation of the volume of the air layer. However, in clinical practice assessment of the volume of pneumothorax mainly relies on the measurement of the inter-pleural distance at conventional chest radiography (CXR). This latter method is inaccurate.
  • Lung ultrasound is a new method highly accurate in the first diagnosis of pneumothorax, with a sensitivity superior to CXR and similar to CT in case of traumatic pneumothorax.
  • The scientific community is actually debating about the usefulness of lung ultrasound in the quantification of pneumothorax []. Lung ultrasound can assess the superficial extension of the pneumothorax, but cannot evaluate its volume.

Aim

  • Main purpose of the study is to compare measurement of the superficial extension of pneumothorax on the chest wall obtained by lung ultrasound, to the evaluation of the air volume performed by CT in patients with pneumothorax.
  • The main hypothesis of the study is that the cut-off between small (<11% of lung collapse) and large (>11% of lung collapse) pneumothorax can be identified by a lung ultrasound evaluation of the superficial extension of pneumothorax.
  • Second purpose of the study is to compare the accuracies of lung ultrasound and CXR in predicting the volume of pneumothorax assessed by CT.