The PLUKED study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Point of care Lung Ultrasound in Kids in Children’s emergency departments – the PLUKED study
IRAS ID
317258
Contact name
Damian Roland
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
Research summary:
Ultra-sound is a painless imaging tool used by staff in the NHS to help them diagnose disease in patients. It is commonly used in maternity services and x-ray departments. Its use in paediatrics is growing but there is uncertainty of when best to use it, especially for children with breathing difficulty. This study, as part of an MSc project, will use ultrasound in a children's emergency department to see if it can help make quicker diagnoses on patients presenting with breathing difficulty. The children will not have their patient journey changed as the ultrasound of their lungs will be undertaken between the wait after initial assessment and while waiting for a doctor to see them. The study findings will be used to design a future research project to determine how effective ultrasound may be.
Summary of results:
Many children present to Emergency Departments (often known as A&E) with breathing difficulty. Ultrasound (the device used to scan babies in their mothers abdomen) may be able to be used on children to work out the cause of their breathing difficulty.
This study aimed to see how ultrasound may help in diagnosis if used by someone with only a small amount of experience in using its.Methods: In the study a trained student sonologist performed lung ultrasound on children with respiratory symptoms before they were seen by a doctor.
Results: 47 children completed the study and diagnoses included wheeze, bronchiolitis (a common winter virus), asthma exacerbation and chest infection.
Those children with abnormal ultrasound findings were more likely to be admitted and the ultrasound was able to correctly identify patients with asthma 100% of the time. However for other conditions ultra-sound may not have changed what would have happened to the child if it had not been performed.
Conclusions: Ultra-sound was effective tool and it was possible to train a novice medical student to undertake it. The number of patients in this study was small and so further research is needed.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/YH/0025
Date of REC Opinion
16 Feb 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion