The Reliability of Ultrasound in Diagnosis of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Abstract Background Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is defined as a specific form of chronic, progressive fibrosing interstitial pneumonia of unknown cause. IPF is the most common and severe form of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia, with an unpredictable and variable clinical course, and is associated with an extremely poor prognosis. Objective To determine role of Ultrasound in diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Patients and Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted at tertiary care hospital at Ain Shams University hospitals from May 2021 till November 2021 and performed on total 60 patients diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and had previous clinical features, documented high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan findings and comparing it with lung ultrasound findings. Results Consequently, B-lines number and Pleural lines thickness statistically had significant high diagnostic performance in the diagnosis of IPF with cut-off of ≥ 3.0 which indicates that B-lines number ≥3.0 and Pleural lines thickness ≥3.0 mm had perfect sensitivity and LR+, while Pleural lines interruption had perfect specificity. B-lines number ≥3.0 had highest diagnostic accuracy, Youden’s index and kappa. Our research study revealed that B-lines number and Pleural lines thickness statistically were significantly higher in multiple zones spread cases (p value<0.001). Pleural lines interruption statistically was significantly more frequent in multiple zones spread cases. Conclusion As evident from the current study, this study introduced and thoroughly evaluated lung US features, which showed a high correlation with the high-resolution CT findings. Chest ultrasound could constitute an additional monitoring tool for IPF, which is a rapidly progressive disease, usable by the pulmonologist at the patient’s bedside or during a consultation, easily available, non-irradiating, achievable in a short time and immediately informative, for a trained sonographer.