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Correspondence
Ultrasound performs better than radiographs
  1. Eustachio Agricola1,
  2. Charlotte Arbelot2,
  3. Michael Blaivas3,
  4. Belaid Bouhemad2,
  5. Roberto Copetti4,
  6. Anthony Dean5,
  7. Scott Dulchavsky6,
  8. Mahmoud Elbarbary7,
  9. Luna Gargani8,
  10. Richard Hoppmann9,
  11. Andrew W Kirkpatrick10,
  12. Daniel Lichtenstein11,
  13. Andrew Liteplo12,
  14. Gebhard Mathis13,
  15. Lawrence Melniker14,
  16. Luca Neri15,
  17. Vicki E Noble12,
  18. Tomislav Petrovic16,
  19. Angelika Reissig17,
  20. Jean Jacques Rouby2,
  21. Armin Seibel18,
  22. Gino Soldati19,
  23. Enrico Storti15,
  24. James W Tsung20,
  25. Gabriele Via21,
  26. Giovanni Volpicelli22
  1. 1San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy
  2. 2Pitie Salpetriere Hospital, Pierre et Marie Curie University-Paris 6, France
  3. 3Northside Hospital Forsyth, Cumming, Georgia, USA
  4. 4Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy
  5. 5University of Pennsylvania, Philedelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
  6. 6Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, USA
  7. 7King Saud University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  8. 8National Council of Research, Pisa, Italy
  9. 9University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
  10. 10Regional Trauma Services, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
  11. 11Paris-Ouest University, Paris, France
  12. 12Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  13. 13University of Innsbruck, Rankweil, Austria
  14. 14New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, USA
  15. 15Ospedale Niguarda Ca' Granda, Milan, Italy
  16. 16University PARIS XIII, Paris, France
  17. 17Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
  18. 18Diakonie Klinikum Jung-Stilling, Germany
  19. 19Valle del Serchio General Hospital, Lucca, Italy
  20. 20Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, New York, USA
  21. 21Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy
  22. 22San Luigi Gonzaga University Hospital, Torino, Italy
  1. Correspondence to Andrew W Kirkpatrick, Regional Trauma Services, Foothills Medical Centre, 1403 29 St NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 2T9, Canada; andrew.kirkpatrick{at}albertahealthservices.ca

https://doi.org/10.1136/thx.2010.153239

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    We applaud the British Thoracic Society (BTS) for its efforts to improve patient care through scientific evidence. We thus recognise the recent guidelines on pleural procedures and thoracic ultrasound (TUS) as an important attempt to develop a rational approach to chest sonography.1 However, we are concerned that the BTS has reached conclusions based on a less complete review of TUS.

    The guidelines state that ‘the utility of thoracic ultrasound for diagnosing a pneumothorax is limited in hospital practice due to the ready availability of chest x-rays (CXR) and conflicting data from published reports’.1 This conclusion appears to be based on a small (but landmark) study of 11 patients from 1986 to 1989, two small studies with only four pneumothoraces in …

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    Footnotes

    • Linked article 156398.

    • Competing interests This letter is being written on behalf of the WINFOCUS International Liaison Committee on Pleural and Lung Ultrasound (ILCPLUS). The goal of this group is to promote the use of point of care ultrasound although none of the members has any specific financial conflicts.

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

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    • PostScript
      Authors' response
      Tom Havelock Richard Teoh Diane Laws Nick Maskell Fergus Gleeson
      Thorax 2010; 66 829-829 Published Online First: 30 Dec 2010. doi: 10.1136/thx.2010.156398