SynthesisBMJ open2015
The diagnostic accuracy of chest ultrasound for CT-detected radiographic consolidation in hospitalised adults with acute respiratory failure: a systematic review.
Synthesis in BMJ open, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Infectious Diseases Society of America Guidelines for Evaluating New Fever in Adult Patients in the ICU.Critical care medicine · 2023Pooled it
- An Observational Study on Diagnostic Accuracy of Lung Ultrasound Compared to High-resolution Computed Tomography Scan of Thorax in Patients Admitted with Respiratory Problems to Critical Care Unit of a Tertiary Care Hospital in Eastern India.Indian journal of critical care medicine : peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine · 2026Article
- Comparative Analysis of Lung Ultrasound, Computed Tomography, and X-ray in the Diagnosis of Common Pathologies among Critically Ill Mechanically Ventilated Patients-A Prospective Observational Study.Indian journal of critical care medicine : peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine · 2025Article
- Lung Ultrasound Reproducibly Outperforms Computed Tomography in the Detection of Extravascular Lung Water in Patients Undergoing Haemodialysis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The Role of Pocus in Acute Respiratory Failure: A Narrative Review on Airway and Breathing Assessment.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Localization-adjusted diagnostic performance and assistance effect of a computer-aided detection system for pneumothorax and consolidation.NPJ digital medicine · 2022Article
- Integrated Basic Heart and Lung Ultrasound Examination for the Differentiation between Bacterial Pneumonia and Lung Neoplasm in Dogs-A New Diagnostic Algorithm.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Hand-Held Ultrasound of the Lung: A Systematic Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Position Statement on Indications and the Safe Reintroduction of Cardiovascular Imaging Methods in the COVID-19 Scenario - 2021.Arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia · 2021Article
- Impact of Bedside Combined Cardiopulmonary Ultrasound on Etiological Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute Respiratory Failure in Critically Ill Patients.Indian journal of critical care medicine : peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine · 2020Article
- Clinical Progress Note: Point-of-Care Ultrasound Applications in COVID-19.Journal of hospital medicine · 2020Review
- Review
- Chest ultrasound in post-operative management: the needed to rethink our perspective?Journal of thoracic disease · 2019Article
- Does daily chest ultrasound in the postoperative period contribute to an enhanced recovery after surgery pathway for patients undergoing general thoracic surgery?Journal of thoracic disease · 2019Article
- Chest and lung ultrasound in childhood: applications, role, value and limitations.Journal of ultrasonography · 2018Article
- Providing safe and effective pleural medicine services in the UK: an aspirational statement from UK pleural physicians.BMJ open respiratory research · 2018Article
- Article
- Thoracic Ultrasound: What Non-radiologists Need to Know.Current pulmonology reports · 2017Review
- The efficacy of bedside chest ultrasound: from accuracy to outcomes.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2016Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectives(1) Summarise chest ultrasound accuracy to diagnose radiological consolidation, referenced to chest CT in patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF). (2) Directly compared ultrasound with chest X-ray.
settingHospitalised patients.
participantsStudies were eligible if adult participants in respiratory failure underwent chest ultrasound to diagnose consolidation referenced to CT. Exclusion: (1) not primary study, (2) not respiratory failure, (3) not chest ultrasound, (4) not consolidation, (5) translation unobtainable, (6) unable to extract data, (7) unable to obtain paper. 4 studies comprising 224 participants met inclusion. OUTCOME MEASURES: As planned, paired forest plots display 95% CIs of sensitivity and specificity for ultrasound and chest X-ray. Sensitivity and specificity from each study are plotted in receiver operator characteristics space. Meta-analysis was planned if studies were sufficiently homogeneous and numerous (≥4). Although this numerical requirement was met, meta-analysis was prevented by heterogeneous units of analysis between studies.
resultsAll studies were in intensive care, with either a high risk of selection bias or high applicability concerns. Studies had unclear or high risk of bias related to use of ultrasound. Only 1 study clearly performed ultrasound within 24 h of respiratory failure diagnosis. Ultrasound sensitivity ranged from 0.91 (95% CI 0.81 to 0.97) to 1.00 (95% CI 0.95 to 1.00). Specificity ranged from 0.78 (95% CI 0.52 to 0.94) to 1.00 (0.99 to 1.00). In two studies, chest X-ray had lower sensitivity than ultrasound, but there were insufficient patients to compare specificity.
conclusionsFour small studies suggest ultrasound is highly sensitive and specific for consolidation in ARF, but high risk of bias and concerns about applicability in all studies may have inflated diagnostic accuracy. Further robustly designed studies are needed to define the role of ultrasound in this setting. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/ (CRD42013006472).
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Registered trials
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