Chest ultrasound compared to chest X‐ray for pediatric pulmonary tuberculosis

INTRODUCTION: Chest ultrasound is increasingly used to radiologically diagnose childhood pneumonia, but there are limited data on its use for pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). AIM: Compare chest ultrasound with a chest X‐ray (CXR) findings. METHODS: Children (up to 13 years) with suspected PTB were enrolled. Bedside chest ultrasound findings were compared to CXR. The analysis was stratified by PTB category: confirmed PTB (microbiologically confirmed), unconfirmed PTB (clinical diagnosis with negative microbiological tests), or unlikely PTB (other respiratory diseases with improvement without tuberculosis treatment). RESULTS: One hundred fifty‐nine children were enrolled (57% boys, median age 26.6 months [interquartile range 15.1‐59.3]). Ultrasound detected abnormalities in 72% (n = 114), CXR in 56% (n = 89), P < .001. Pleural effusion was detected on ultrasound in 15% (n = 24) compared 9% (n = 14) on CXR, P = .004, more in confirmed PTB (33%, n = 12 vs 8%, n = 4 unlikely PTB, P = .013). Ultrasound detected enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes more commonly (22%, n = 25) than CXR (6%, n = 10, P = .001); the size of lymph nodes in the unlikely category (1.0 cm) was smaller than the other two PTB categories (1.4 and 1.5 cm, P = .001). Inter‐reader agreement (kappa Cohen) was higher for ultrasound than CXR for several findings (consolidation 0.67 vs 0.47, pleural effusion 0.86 vs 0.56, enlarged lymph nodes 0.56 vs 0.27). CONCLUSION: Ultrasound detected abnormalities more frequently than CXR with the higher inter‐reader agreement; ultrasound abnormalities were most common in children with confirmed PTB. Ultrasound is a promising modality for detecting abnormalities in PTB. Further studies should evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound against a gold standard.