Clinical Impact of Lung Ultrasound Monitoring for Diagnosis of VAP

Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Institute Of Medicine.

Status: Completed

Conditions: Ventilator Associated Pneumonia

Treatments: Diagnostic Test: lung ultrasound

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03917888

78611

Details and patient eligibility

About

The study evaluates whether lung ultrasound monitoring could lead to earlier detection of ventilator associated pneumonia and influence outcome. Half of the participants will be diagnosed with VAP using a combination of lung ultrasound and clinical features and half will be diagnosed using the Johanson criteria, which is a combination of clinical features and chest x-ray.

Full description

The current guidelines recommend the use of chest x-ray or computed tomography of the chest to aid in the diagnosis of VAP. However many studies have shown that chest x-ray is neither very sensitive nor specific for pneumonia, and computed tomography, though has the highest diagnostic accuracy, is not routinely performed due to logistics, safety concerns, economics and radiation exposure.

Emerging studies including meta-analyses have shown high sensitivity and specificity of lung ultrasound in diagnosing pneumonia. When combined with clinical and microbiological features it has shown to be helpful in early diagnosis of VAP, but a study to show whether such early detection improves outcome is lacking.

Enrollment: 88 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Mechanical ventilation for more than 48 hours
• Absence of pneumonia as the reason for mechanical ventilation (includes clinical, radiological or sonographic diagnosis)

Exclusion criteria

• Recent trauma or surgery to the thorax (including chest tube insertion)
• Presence of dressings or skin conditions restricting access to the thorax
• Confirmed pregnancy
• If already enrolled in the study
• Denial of consent

Trial design

Primary purpose: Diagnostic

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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88 participants in 2 patient groups

Lung ultrasound

Experimental group

Description:

Patients will be monitored for ventilator associated pneumonia using lung ultrasound combined with clinical features

Treatment:

Diagnostic Test: lung ultrasound

Chest x-ray

No Intervention group

Description:

Patients will be monitored for ventilator associated pneumonia using chest x-ray and clinical features.