Ten Questions on Using Lung Ultrasonography to Diagnose and Manage Pneumonia in Hospital-at-Home Model: Part...

The hospital-at-home (HaH) model delivers hospital-level care to patients in their homes, with point-of-care ultrasonography (PoCUS) serving as a cornerstone diagnostic tool for respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia. This review-the third in a series-addresses the prognostic, synchronous, and potential overdiagnostic concerns of lung ultrasound (LUS) in managing pneumonia within HaH settings. LUS offers advantages of safety and repeatability, allowing clinicians to identify "red flag" sonographic findings that signal complicated or severe disease, including pleural line abnormalities, fluid bronchograms, absent Doppler perfusion, or poor diaphragmatic motion. Serial LUS examinations correlate closely with clinical recovery, showing progressive resolution of consolidations, B-lines, and pleural effusions, and thus provide a non-invasive method for monitoring therapeutic response. Compared with chest radiography, LUS demonstrates superior sensitivity in detecting pneumonia, pleural effusion, and interstitial syndromes across pediatric and adult populations. However, specificity may decline in tuberculosis-endemic or obese populations due to technical limitations and overlapping imaging patterns. Overdiagnosis remains a concern, as highly sensitive ultrasonography may identify minor or clinically irrelevant lesions, potentially leading to overtreatment. To mitigate this, PoCUS should be applied in parallel with conventional diagnostics and integrated into comprehensive clinical assessment. Standardized training, multi-zone scanning protocols, and structured image acquisition are recommended to improve reproducibility and inter-operator consistency.