Lung ultrasonography appeared to be a useful and simple method to predict the prognosis of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome, according to study results.

Investigators with Capital Medical University in Beijing evaluated 21 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome admitted to the intensive care unit who underwent a chest ultrasound. The researchers examined 12 regions of the lungs, and they used the level of lung aeration to calculate the comprehensive lung ultrasound score.

On the first 3 days after diagnosis, patients also underwent pulse index continuous cardiac output (PiCCO) monitoring to determine the correlation between lung ultrasound B-lines and extravascular lung water indices (EVLWI).

Approximately 62% of patients reached the primary endpoint of mortality, with significantly higher lung ultrasound score and EVLWI values than patients in the survivor group. However, there were no significant differences between the survivor and non-survivor groups on the different days measured.