SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Pulmonology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1642202
This article is part of the Research TopicUse of lung ultrasound in critical ill children with acute lung diseaseView all 5 articles
The predictive value of newborn and infant lung ultrasound score for mechanical ventilation needs: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Ultrasound Medicine, the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
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Objective: To investigate the predictive value of neonatal and infant lung ultrasound scores for the need for mechanical ventilation through meta-analysis. Methods: Literature up to October 1, 2024, on neonatal and infant lung ultrasound scores and mechanical ventilation was searched in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and The Cochrane Library databases. The diagnostic accuracy of the included studies was evaluated using the Quality Assessment tool for Diagnostic Accuracy Studies. Revman5.4 and StataSE-64 software were employed to calculate the pooled sensitivity, specificity and AUC value of neonatal and infant lung ultrasound scores for predicting the need of mechanical ventilation. Results: The meta-analysis comprised 9 studies (7 prospective studies and 2 retrospective), including a total of 1746 patients. The LUS score predicted the need for mechanical ventilation. Overall sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio were 74% (95% CI: 66-81%), 81% (95% CI: 71-87%), 3.8 (2.4-6.1), 0.32 (0.23-0.46) and 12 (5-6), respectively. The forest plots indicated significant heterogeneity for sensitivity (p=0.81, I2=82.36%, 95%CI: 72.82-91.90%) and specificity (p=0.74, I2=51.27%, 95%CI: 17.74-84.80%). Conclusion: Meta-analysis of multivariate categorical variables indicated that the higher the LUS scores, the greater the risk of mechanical ventilation. The combined results of meta-analysis of diagnostic data suggest that LUS score has high accuracy in predicting the need for mechanical ventilation.
Keywords: Pulmonary1, Ultrasound score2, infant3, Mechanical ventilation4, Meta-analysis5
Received: 06 Jun 2025; Accepted: 10 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 He, Ma and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Taomei He, 1980282173@qq.com
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