Cardiothoracic & vascular anaesthesia
Comparative accuracy of lung ultrasound and chest radiography for pneumothorax detection after cardiac surgery: a feasibility pilot study
Authors' conclusion
Novice-performed LUS was feasible, with high protocol adherence and image quality. Lung ultrasound showed high sensitivity and strong reliability for PTX detection in this feasibility pilot study. These findings support the need for larger, fully powered studies to evaluate diagnostic performance and clinical integration.
Study context
- Population
- Adult patients undergoing cardiac surgeryenrolled over 1 year, of 506 patients screened
- Participants
- 60 patients
- Exposure
- Novice-performed lung ultrasound (LUS) compared with chest x-ray (CXR), using expert-performed LUS or senior-radiologist-reviewed CXR as the reference standard for pneumothorax (PTX) confirmation
- Outcome
- Recruitment feasibility, protocol adherence, and image quality
Methodological detailspilot study
- Pilot study
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Recruitment feasibility (enrolment)
12%
Protocol adherence
98.3%
Image quality sufficient
96.7%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Secondary outcomes
PTX detection (sensitivity against the composite reference standard)
Negative predictive value of novice-performed LUS
- Negative predictive value
- 97.6%
- In this feasibility cohort
Interrater reliability
- κ
- 0.97
Pneumothorax diagnosed using the composite reference standard
- Participants with PTX
- 19/60 (31.7%)
Original publication
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