Chest ultrasound has already shown its value in the diagnosis of pneumonia in the emergency
department with superiority over chest X-ray.

However, there is little data on the thoracic ultrasound semiology of viral pneumonia in
general and of COVID in particular.

Peng reported data from 20 patients and compared them to chest CT. The abnormalities are a
thickening of the pleuropneumonia line, an interstitial syndrome with B lines, corresponding
to frosted glass opacities, confluent B lines (snowstorm appearance) corresponding to
interstitial infiltrate, sub-pleural alveolar opacities corresponding to sub-pleural
condensations, more frank alveolar images corresponding to alveolar opacities. A multifocal
aspect was associated with involvement of more than 2 lobes. However, the frequency of these
abnormalities as well as the sensitivity of the echo are not detailed in this article.

Another Italian article describes a clinical case of COVID-19 pneumonia with sub-pleural
involvement and irregularity of the pleuro-pulmonary line.

Clinical thoracic ultrasound has a major potential interest during the COVID epidemic:
available at the patient's bedside, avoiding the need to move around, feasible for the
physician during his visit, easy to clean especially if ultraportable devices are used, fast
and not exposing the staff any more than the usual clinical examination.

In order to determine whether this technique is useful in the management of infected patients
or patients suspected of COVID-19 infection with respiratory signs, we propose a descriptive
prospective study evaluating the ultrasound semiology of COVID-19 pneumonia and the interest
of ultrasound in the evolutionary follow-up of these patients.