Point-of-care Lung Ultrasound in Infants with Bronchiolitis in the Pediatric Emergency Department: a Prospective Study

Bronchiolitis is the most common cause of hospitalization of children in the first year of life. The lung ultrasound is a new diagnostic tool which is inexpensive, non-invasive, rapid, and easily repeatable. Our prospective study was conducted in the emergency department and all patients underwent a routine clinical evaluation and lung ultrasound by the pediatricians who defined the clinical and the ultrasound score. We enrolled 76 infants (median age 90 days [IQR 62–183], 53.9% males). In nasopharyngeal aspirates, the respiratory syncytial virus was isolated in 33 patients. Considering the clinical score, children with higher score had a higher probability of requiring respiratory support (p 0.001). At the ultrasound evaluation, there was a significant difference on ultrasound score between those who will need respiratory support or not (p 0.003). Infants who needed ventilation with helmet continuous positive airway pressure had a more severe ultrasound score (p 0.028) and clinical score (p 0.004), if compared with those who did not need it.