The study by Kiranantawat et al. “Clinical role, safety and diagnostic accuracy of percutaneous transthoracic needle biopsy in the evaluation of pulmonary consolidation” highlights how “pulmonary consolidation can be safely evaluated with CT-guided percutaneous needle biopsy”. Even if we agree about the role of CT guidance, we would like to point out how Thoracic Ultrasound could be better than CT for biopsy of subpleural lesions that could easily be detected and reached with this “real-time” and quicker technique.
Transthoracic ultrasound (TUS) is a validate complementary technique widely used in everyday medical practice. TUS is the gold-standard for studying pleural effusion and for echo-guided thoracentesis, moreover, it is employed in detection of pleural and pulmonary lesions adherent to pleural surface and their ccho-guided percutaneous needle biopsy (PTNB). 1 We used TUS technique to study severe asthma patients. We found that several patterns are constant in these patients. One of these patterns, i.e. lack of gliding sign, mimic pneumothorax (PNX). In this study, we attempted an echographic approach to asthma, trying to lay the first stone for the individuation of common ultrasound patterns in this disease.
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