Chest ultrasound for evaluation of bilateral pulmonary infiltrates in initensive care unit: A comparison with clinical assessment, sonographic assessment

Background When the new bilateral air space pacification develops, we are usually indistinguishable bilateral pulmonary infiltrates from congestive cardiac failure. Until now, for the differential diagnosis of cardiogenic edema and pneumonia, laboratory finding including white blood cell (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and imaging studies such as chest computed tomography (CT) and/or echocardiography were have been used. We evaluated whether chest ultrasound (CUS, heart+lung) could assist in the differential diagnosis of pulmonary edema and pneumonia. So, we conducted a comparison between clinical diagnosis (C-Dx) with the result of the laboratory finding and sonographic diagnosis (US-Dx) with CUS.