Efficiency of the Imaging Strategy for the Management of Pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia, Emergency, Imaging strategy, pneumopathy, Hemodynamic complications, Antibiotic therapy

For patients with suspected pneumonia presenting to the emergency room, the imaging strategy most often involves a frontal and lateral chest x-ray despite poor diagnostic input. Indeed, the radiography is not very sensitive and specific for the diagnosis of pneumopathy compared to the scanner. However, the scanner remains the gold standard, the major constraint of which concerns the irradiation to which the patient is exposed. The new scanners allow ultra-low-dose scans with better sensitivity than standard radiography with an equivalent dose of radiation. In addition, the ultra-low-dose scanner helps prevent diagnostic errors and unintended treatments. A low-dose CT scan for suspected pneumonia has been possible in the Strasbourg emergency department since March 2019. The investigators therefore hypothesize that a diagnostic strategy involving the performance of a low dose CT scan in the event of suspicion of pneumopathy in the emergency room makes it possible to improve the adequacy of the diagnosis made by the initial imaging examination and the diagnosis on discharge from hospitalization, to reduce respiratory or hemodynamic complications and to reduce the prescription of antibiotic therapy that is not suitable for the patient. course of the imaging result validated by a panel of emergency physicians and infectious disease specialists based on medical records in accordance with the recommendations.

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France