Abstract

Pneumonia remains the leading infectious cause of death globally among children younger than 5 years, considered for an estimated 9, 20,000 deaths every year. Pneumonia is a condition in which inflammation of lung parenchyma occurs.
Aim: To determine whether lung ultrasonography can serve as a useful alternative to CXR in diagnosing suspected cases of community acquired pneumonia in children.
Materials and Methods: The present study was an observational prospective study. This Study was conducted from March 2021 to July 2022 in Mahatma Gandhi medical college and hospital Jaipur (Raj.). Total 40 patients were included in this study. For analytical research data were entered into a Microsoft excel spreadsheet and then evaluated by SPSS (version 27.0; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) version 5 Graph Pad Prism.
Result: In our study we performed radiological investigation CXR and LUS at the time of hospital admission in clinically suspected CAP patients for early diagnosis and management, follow up of patients done to compare their efficacy and sensitivity to detect CAP with LUS to avoid radiation exposure in paediatric patients.
Conclusion: To conclude our study, we can suggest LUS may represent a good supplemental tool in the diagnostic work-up and follow up if CAP is suspected. Further studies are necessary to validate the diagnostic accuracy of LUS on larger population and to evaluate the impact of LUS on antibiotic use and stewardship in podiatric age group and reduce unnecessary radiation exposure from CR.