DIAGNOSTIC ACCURACY OF CHEST ULTRASONOGRAPHY FOR PNEUMOTHORAX IN POST TRAUMATIC PATIENT TAKING CT AS A GOLD STANDARD

Introduction: It is vital to diagnose pneumothorax at early stage for treatment purpose. In trauma cases usually it is ignored and remained undiagnosed which can become cause of cardiac arrest and tension. Ultrasound has helped the trauma cases to diagnose the pneumothorax by performing chest ultrasound and can manage the treatment plan and resuscitation.

Objective: The purpose of the study is to analyze the diagnostic accuracy of chest ultrasound in identifying the pneumothorax from trauma cases while CT remain as a gold standard.

Methodology: The trauma patients who were referred to Radiology Department of Lahore General Hospital from the period of January 2019 to January 2020 were included in the study. Total 152 patients were included in the study. The ultrasound was performed in supine position by using high frequency linear probe by scanning and focusing on both lungs and identified the parietal and visceral pleura, comet tail artifact and lung sliding which shows normal lungs. The gold standard set was CT results of pneumothorax.

Results: Total of 152 patients who have chest trauma were included and the mean age of the selected sample was 31.6 ± 13.4 years (range: 5-68).Male patients were more in number (76%).Pneumothorax was found in 55 cases  which counts 36.2% of the total cases. The sensitivity of the ultrasound was 83.6 %. Specificity of the ultrasound was 97.9%. Positive predictive value of ultrasound was 95.8% and negative predictive value 91.3%.

Conclusion: Chest ultrasound is accurate, no harm of radiation and quick technique to identify the pneumothorax in chest trauma patients in medical emergency.

Key Words: Chest Trauma, Pneumothorax, CT scan, Ultrasonography