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Research letter
Contrast-enhanced ultrasound does not discriminate between community acquired pneumonia and lung cancer
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  1. Marco Sperandeo1,
  2. Gaetano Rea2,
  3. Maria Arcangela Grimaldi3,
  4. Francesca Trovato4,
  5. Lucia M C Dimitri5,
  6. Vincenzo Carnevale3
  1. 1Unit of Interventional Ultrasound of Internal Medicine, “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza” Hospital, IRCCS, San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy
  2. 2Department of Radiology, Ultrasound Diagnostic Unit, “Monaldi” Hospital, AO dei Colli, Naples, Italy
  3. 3Unit of Internal Medicine, “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza” Hospital, IRCCS, San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy
  4. 4Department of Internal Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
  5. 5Unit of Pathology, “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza” Hospital, IRCCS, San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy
  1. Correspondence to Dr Marco Sperandeo, Unit of Interventional Ultrasound of Internal Medicine, “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza” Hospital, IRCCS, Viale dei Cappuccini snc, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG 71013, Italy; sperandeom{at}libero.it

Abstract

We investigated if contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) may differentiate community acquired pneumonia (CAP) from lung cancer (LC). Among 1374 patients admitted in a 5-year period for lung opacities, 728 (329 CAP and 399 LC) were investigated by CEUS, comparing the time of appearance, disappearance, duration and pattern of distribution of contrast enhancement (CE). The patients with CAP and LC did not differ in terms of age, time of CE appearance, disappearance and duration or CE distribution. Our data show that the timing and pattern of CE detected by chest CEUS does not distinguish between CAP and LC and overly optimistic beliefs on this matter should be abandoned.

  • Lung Cancer
  • Pneumonia
  • Imaging/CT MRI etc

https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2016-208913

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors MS: designed the study, collected and interpreted data, drafted, revised and approved the manuscript. GR: collected and interpreted data, revised and approved the manuscript. MAG, FT: database setup and revised and approved the manuscript. LMCD: interpreted data and revised and approved the manuscript. VC: analysed data and drafted, revised and approved the manuscript.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Ethics approval Ethical approval was obtained from the local ethics committee of Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza San Giovanni Rotondo.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement We accept to share our data for systematic review.