Are Lung Ultrasound Findings in COVID-19 Pneumonia Typical or Specific?

Volpicelli, Giovanni; Cardinale, Luciano; Fraccalini, Thomas

The application of point-of-care lung ultrasound (LUS) in the first diagnosis and management of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has gained a great interest during a pandemic that is undermining even the most advanced health systems. LUS demonstrated high sensitivity in the visualization of the interstitial signs of the typical pneumonia complicating the infection. However, although this disease gives typical lung alterations, the same LUS signs observed in COVID-19 pneumonia can be detected in other common pulmonary conditions. While being non-specific when considered separately, the analysis of the distribution of the sonographic typical signs allows the assignment of 4 LUS patterns of probability for COVID-19 pneumonia when the whole chest is examined and attention is paid to the presence of other atypical signs. Moreover, the combination of LUS likelihood with the clinical phenotype at presentation increases the accuracy. This mini-review will analyze the LUS signs of COVID-19 pneumonia and how they can be combined in patterns of probability in the first approach to suspected cases.