Introduction Pneumonia is the principal cause of death among children worldwide. Lung ultrasound (LUS) is a reliable tool for the diagnosis and assessment of community‐acquired pneumonia in children. Furthermore, objective parameters, including the pneumonia LUS score, might be useful for pneumonia monitoring. Thus, our aim was to present a newly developed LUS score for pediatric pneumonia (PedPne) and evaluate its relationship with commonly assessed inflammatory markers. Methods Children referred to the Pediatric Pneumology Clinic between September 2017 and February 2018 with suspected pneumonia were screened for eligibility for inclusion in the study and informed consent was obtained. In addition to clinical assessment, LUS was performed during consultation, and inflammatory biomarkers, including C‐reactive protein level, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and leukocyte count, were measured in all inpatients. An LUS score for pneumonia and pleurisy in children (pediatric pneumonia lung ultrasound score [PedPne LUS]) was subsequently developed. Chest radiography (CXR) was also performed according to local guidelines for pneumonia diagnosis. Spearman's correlation test was used to evaluate the correlation between the PedPne score and inflammatory markers. Results A total of 217 patients were screened, of which 64 patients diagnosed with consolidated pneumonia were included in this study. The median PedPne LUS score of the included patients was 8.02, which was consistent with the consolidations detected on LUS and confirmed by CXR. A very strong positive correlation was found between the LUS PedPne score and C‐reactive protein and ESR, and a good correlation was found with the leukocyte count. Conclusion The LUS pneumonia score is a reliable parameter for the evaluation of pneumonia, and shows a strong correlation with inflammatory biomarkers. The PedPne LUS score is a potential noninvasive surrogate parameter of inflammation in pediatric pneumonia.

Purpose The aim of this cross-sectional study was to identify the major factors influencing pulmonary function in CF patients from western side of Romania. Patients and Methods The study enrolled 51 patients with CF between the ages of 6 and 27.8 years who were monitored at regular visits to the National Cystic Fibrosis Centre and Pius Branzeu County Hospital in Timisoara, Romania, over a period of 2 years. The relationships between lung function, as measured by forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1 ), with patient age, sex, body mass index (BMI), pancreatic insufficiency (PI), microbial infection, CF-related diabetes (CFRD), CF-associated liver disease (CFLD), and physical activity <30 min/day, were evaluated by multivariate regression analysis. Results The results showed that FEV1 was 0.32% higher for each increase in percentile of BMI (95% confidence interval: 0.034–0.619). In addition, mean FEV 1 was 1.52% lower with every year rise of age. PI and female sex increased the risk of impaired lung function (FEV 1 <60%). The factors most closely correlated with pulmonary function in pediatric CF patients were current age (negative) and BMI (positive). Conclusion The findings of this study, in combination with what is known from other studies in CF, suggest that a better nutritional status and infection prophylaxis should be part of a comprehensive clinical management strategy for pediatric CF in Romania.

Background: Pneumonia is the leading cause of death among children; thus, a correct early diagnosis would be ideal. The imagistic diagnosis still uses chest X-ray (CXR), but lung ultrasound (LUS) proves to be reliable for pneumonia diagnosis. The aim of our study was to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of LUS compared to CXR in consolidated pneumonia. Methods: Children with clinical suspicion of bacterial pneumonia were screened by LUS for pneumonia, followed by CXR. The agreement relation between LUS and CXR regarding the detection of consolidation was evaluated by Cohen’s kappa test. Results: A total of 128 patients with clinical suspicion of pneumonia were evaluated; 74 of them were confirmed by imagery and biological inflammatory markers. The highest frequency of pneumonia was in the 0–3 years age group (37.83%). Statistical estimation of the agreement between LUS and CXR in detection of the consolidation found an almost perfect agreement, with a Cohen’s kappa coefficient of K = 0.89 ± 0.04 SD, p = 0.000. Sensitivity of LUS was superior to CXR in detection of consolidations. Conclusion: Lung ultrasound is a reliable method for the detection of pneumonia consolidation in hospitalized children, with sensitivity and specificity superior to CXR. LUS should be used for rapid and safe evaluation of child pneumonia.

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Background: Cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease determines the outcome of this condition. For lung evaluation processes, computed tomography (CT) is the gold standard, but also causes irradiation. Lately, lung ultrasound (LUS) has proven to be reliable for the diagnosis of consolidations, atelectasis, and/or bronchiectasis. The aim of our study was to evaluate the value of a newly conceived LUS score by comparing it to the modified Bhalla CT score. A further aim was to evaluate the correlation between the score and the lung clearance index (LCI). Methods: Patients with CF were screened by LUS, followed by a CT scan. Spearman’s test was used for correlations. Results: A total of 98 patients with CF were screened, and 57 were included in the study; their mean age was 11.8 ± 5.5 (mean ± SD) years. The mean LUS score was 5.88 ± 5.4 SD. The LUS CF score had a very strong correlation with the CT score of rs = 0.87 (p = 0.000). LUS showed a good sensibility for detecting atelectasis (Se = 83.7%) and consolidations (Se = 94.4%). A lower Se (77.7%) and Sp (9%) were found for cylindrical bronchiectasis. Conclusion: Our study shows that LUS and the lung CF score are parameters that can be used with a complementary role in the diagnosis and monitoring of CF lung disease in children.