Lung Ultrasound Evaluation of Pulmonary Abnormalities in Children with Congenital Heart Diseases

Abstract

Abstract Background and Aims Congenital heart disease (CHD) can cause several abnormalities of the lungs, such as pulmonary overflow (PO), pulmonary hypertension and chest infection like pneumonia. We aimed to assess pulmonary abnormalities using lung ultrasound (LUS) in children with congenital heart diseases. Patients and Methods This is a cross-sectional study, which included (33) CHD patients aged between 0.5 to 3.5 years who were admitted to the Cardiology Unit,Ain Shams University, Children’s Hospital. The patients were subjected to detecting any consolidation and measuring B vertical lines in all lung zones. LUS score was recorded at baseline and after course of management. Results There was statistically reduction in the after management group compared to the before management group according to LUS score with p-value (p < 0.001). There was a difference between types of management according to LUS score and its severity in the before management group, with p-value (p < 0.001) whereas, surgical type of management had the highest mean value of the LUS score compared to other types of management among our studied patients before management with a highly statistically significant difference, with p-value (p < 0.001). Conclusion Lung ultrasound is an ideal tool for the diagnosis and follow-up of pulmonary complications such as lung congestion, pulmonary edema and pneumonia. Also, there was improvement in pulmonary congestion after management among CHD children.