Effectiveness of Lung Ultrasound in Diagnosing Pediatric Pneumonia and Outcomes in Implementation of Its Quality Control System.

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of lung ultrasound (LUS) in diagnosing pediatric pneumonia and the outcomes of implementing a "personnel-equipment-operation-interpretation-feedback" quality control system.

METHODS

A retrospective study was made on 479 pediatric patients with suspected pneumonia. The LUS, chest digital radiography (DR), and chest computed tomography (CT) were performed on the patients, and the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value (NPV) of the three inspection methods were compared using comprehensive clinical diagnosis as the reference standard. In addition, a "personnel-equipment-operation-interpretation-feedback" quality control system of LUS was constructed and implemented in 412 cases, and the diagnosis accordance rate, image qualification rate, and operation standardization rate of LUS before and after implementation of the quality control system were compared.

RESULTS

The sensitivity, specificity, and NPV of LUS for pediatric pneumonia were significantly higher than those of CT and DR, respectively (p < 0.05). After implementation of the quality control system, the diagnosis accordance rate, image qualification rate, and operation standardization rate of LUS significantly increased compared with before implementation of the quality control system (p < 0.05). In addition, after implementation of the quality control system, its main items were significantly improved compared with before.

CONCLUSION

LUS has good diagnostic effectiveness for pediatric pneumonia. The construction and implementation of this multidimensional LUS quality control system can effectively improve the accuracy and reliability of diagnosis.