[Chest ultrasonography in pleurapulmonary disease]

Although the initial diagnosis and follow-up of pleuropulmonary disease are normally done with plain chest films and the gold standard for chest disease is computed tomography, diverse studies have established the usefulness of chest ultrasonography in the diagnosis of different pleuropulmonary diseases like pleural effusion and lung consolidation, among others. In this article, we show the different ultrasonographic patterns for pleuropulmonary disease. The availability of ultrasonography in different areas (ICU, recovery areas) makes this technique especially important for critical patients because it obviates the need to transfer the patient. Moreover, ultrasonography is noninvasive and easy to repeat. On the other hand, it enables the direct visualization of pleuropulmonary disease that is necessary for interventional procedures.