Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of Lung Ultrasound B-Lines in Acute Heart Failure With Concomitant Pneumonia

Purpose: To evaluate the potential confounding effect of concomitant pneumonia (PNM) on lung ultrasound (LUS) B-lines in acute heart failure (AHF). Methods: We enrolled 86 AHF patients with (31 pts, AHF/PNM) and without (55 pts, AHF) concomitant PNM. LUS B-lines were evaluated using a combined antero-lateral (AL) and posterior (POST) approach at admission (T0), after 24 h from T0 (T1), after 48 h from T0 (T2) and before discharge (T3). B-lines score was calculated at each time point on AL and POST chest, dividing the number of B-lines by the number of explorable scanning sites. The decongestion rate (DR) was calculated as the difference between the absolute B-lines number at discharge and admission, divided by the number of days of hospitalization. Patients were followed-up and hospital readmission for AHF was considered as adverse outcome. Results: At admission, AHF/PNM patients showed no difference in AL B-lines score compared with AHF patients [AHF/PNM: 2.00 (IQR: 1.44-2.94) vs. AHF: 1.65 (IQR: 0.50-2.66), p = 0.072], whereas POST B-lines score was higher [AHF/PNM: 3.76 (IQR: 2.70-4.77) vs. AHF = 2.44 (IQR: 1.20-3.60), p < 0.0001]. At discharge, AL B-lines score [HR: 1.907 (1.097-3.313), p = 0.022] and not POST B-lines score was found to predict adverse events (AHF rehospitalization) after a median follow-up of 96 days (IQR: 30-265) in the overall population. Conclusions: Assessing AL B-lines alone is adequate for diagnosis, pulmonary congestion (PC) monitoring and prognostic stratification in AHF patients, despite concomitant PNM.

Automated summary

The study found that assessing antero-lateral B-lines alone is sufficient for diagnosing, monitoring pulmonary congestion, and prognostic stratification in acute heart failure patients, regardless of concomitant pneumonia.