Lung ultrasound in pregnant women with suspicion of COVID-19 Reply

We acknowledge that diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia by lung ultrasound represents a challenge. Indeed, the use of ultrasound in the assessment of lung pathology is not so widespread, systematic teaching programs are lacking and data on the correlation between lung ultrasound features and clinical parameters, as well as on the prediction of clinical outcomes, are still being collected. However, preliminary data suggest high accuracy of this imaging method in detecting peripheral pulmonary and pleural conditions, including COVID-19 pneumonia1-5. Additionally, experience in pregnant women underlines the usefulness of this diagnostic tool in this setting, especially due to the possibility of it being performed at the patient's bedside6-8. Our experience with lung ultrasound and COVID-19 during recent weeks suggests that the basic principles of lung ultrasound are easily learnt by gynecologists and obstetricians already skilled in ultrasound, and that typical lung ultrasound patterns indicative of pneumonia are easy to recognize. We believe that, in this emergency pandemic situation, this method could play an important role, especially in low-resource countries, where access to computed tomography may be limited. In fact, during the past week, we successfully linked up with colleagues from 12 African countries, sharing with them our rapid lung ultrasound training program. Familiarizing ourselves with the particular circumstances in different countries enriches our research, allowing us to widen our knowledge and gain new perspectives to help overcome resource-limited settings. We thank Dr Joob and Professor Wiwanitkit for describing the current situation in their country and we invite them to share with us any further thoughts or suggestions, which we will happily take into consideration.