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Because clinical findings are not always reliable in determining whether a child has pneumonia, clinicians often obtain a chest radiograph (CXR) to help make the diagnosis. Ultrasonography (US) has shown promise for diagnosis of pneumonia, and smaller devices make point-of-care use more feasible. Researchers prospectively examined the accuracy of US in 200 patients (age, <21 years; median age, 3 years) who presented to a New York City emergency department with clinical suspicion of community-acquired pneumonia requiring CXR.
Patients were determined to have pneumonia if the radiologist read the CXR as “consolidation,” “infiltrate,” or “pneumonia.” Emergency physicians with 1 hour of chest US training conducted point-of-care US. US was consid…