Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Impact of patient positions in lung ultrasound protocol: author’s reply

Journal of Perinatology volume 42, page 290 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

We greatly appreciate the thoughtful letter to the editor by Alonso-Ojembarrena and Raimondi [1] in response to our paper [2]. Below, we provide our replies to their comments.

Regarding the first comment, comparing lung ultrasound (LUS) scores and respiratory status (such as oxygenation) was not appropriate for our study. Had we aimed to evaluate the position change effects for the LUS score in the same patients, or compare the LUS scores throughout the cohort, such evaluations might be useful to demonstrate the validity. However, our study was aimed at assessing the impact of gravity and time between gravity-dependent and non-dependent lungs. Thus, we compared each LUS score between the two lung regions. Moreover, they mentioned the differences in the LUS scores between patients with or without bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD); we think that analyzing the LUS score with respect to other studies may be difficult as the scanning protocol or the range of the total LUS score differed between the studies. Moreover, a scanning protocol with only anterior and lateral lungs might provide an overestimated LUS score, because gravity-induced loss of aeration and atelectasis are common in the anterior lung when a patient is in the prone position [3].

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Alonso-Ojembarrena, A, Raimondi, F. The meaning of gravity-induced lung ultrasound score variations, to appear in Journal of Perinatology.

  2. Hoshino Y, Arai J, Hirono K, Maruo K, Kajikawa D, Yukitake Y, et al. Gravity-induced loss of aeration and atelectasis development in the preterm lung: a serial sonographic assessment. J Perinatol. 2021.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-021-01189-1.

  3. Hoshino Y, Arai J, Miura R, Takeuchi S, Yukitake Y, Kajikawa D, et al. Lung ultrasound for predicting the respiratory outcome in patients with bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Am J Perinatol. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0040-1721848.

  4. Shah PS, Lui K, Sjörs G, Mirea L, Reichman B, Adams M, et al. Neonatal outcomes of very low birth weight and very preterm neonates: an international comparison. J Pediatr. 2016;177:144–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Alonso-Ojembarrena A, Serna-Guerediaga I, Aldecoa-Bilbao V, Gregorio-Hernández R, Alonso-Quintela P, Concheiro-Guisán A, et al. The predictive value of lung ultrasound scores in developing bronchopulmonary dysplasia: a prospective multicenter diagnostic accuracy study. Chest. 2021;160:1006–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neonatology, Ibaraki Children’s Hospital, Mito, Japan

    Yusuke Hoshino & Junichi Arai

  2. Diagnostic and Training Center for Pediatric Ultrasound, Ibaraki Children’s Hospital, Mito, Japan

    Yusuke Hoshino

Authors
  1. Yusuke Hoshino
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Junichi Arai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

YH drafted the initial manuscript and JA revised the manuscript for intellectual content. Both authors approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yusuke Hoshino.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hoshino, Y., Arai, J. Impact of patient positions in lung ultrasound protocol: author’s reply. J Perinatol 42, 290 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-021-01281-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-021-01281-6

Search

Advanced search

Quick links