Lung Ultrasound as a New Technique for Diagnosis of Neonatal Respiratory Diseases.

Point-of-care ultrasound in the NICU is becoming more commonplace and is now used for a number of indications. Over the past ten years, the use of ultrasound as an alternative to a chest x-ray for the diagnosis of neonatal lung disease has been explored, and protocols were developed to refine the interpretation of ultrasound images in neonatal lung disease. The purpose of this column is to briefly explain the physics of ultrasound and describe the application of ultrasound to neonatal lung assessment.