Can lung ultrasound catch sickle cell chest complications earlier than X-Rays?
NCT ID NCT03971136
First seen Sep 14, 2026 · Last updated Sep 15, 2026 · Updated 1 time
Summary
Children with sickle cell disease who are hospitalized for painful vaso-occlusive crises can develop acute chest syndrome, a serious lung complication. Doctors usually diagnose it with a chest X-ray, but researchers want to know whether lung ultrasound works as well or better. In this study, children aged 12 months to 17 years receive lung ultrasounds on admission and on the next three days, and researchers compare the results with chest X-rays to measure how accurately ultrasound detects the condition.
What this could mean
Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.
- Active substance
- pulmonary ultrasound
- What this could lead to
- If lung ultrasound proves reliable, doctors could detect acute chest syndrome earlier and with less radiation than chest X-rays, especially in children who need repeated imaging.
- What could go wrong
- Ultrasound images can be harder to interpret in children and results may vary between operators. The trial may show it misses cases that X-rays catch, or that it flags problems that are not there.
This is an AI summary of the original study and may miss details. Read our disclaimer.
Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Phase
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Not a phased trial
Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.
- Participants
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190 people
The number who actually took part.
- Started
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Apr 2019
- Finished
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Oct 2022
- Lead sponsor
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Other sponsor
The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.
Who can take part
This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.
- Ages
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12 months to 17 years
- Sex
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Anyone
- Healthy volunteers
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Not accepted
This study is not open to healthy volunteers. The entry requirements below say who it is open to.
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Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.
Inclusion Criteria: * Age: ≥12 months and \<18 years * Has a major sickle cell disease whatever the genotype * Admission to hospital for a febrile vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) or not * Evolving at home for less than 48h * Concomitant treatment with hydroxycarbamide / hydroxyurea possible * Signed consent * Patients affiliated to a French social security scheme Exclusion Criteria: * Child presenting an acute thoracic syndrome (ATS) from the outset at the admission * Child who presented an ATS in the month preceding the inclusion * Child in regular transfusion program or child who has received a hematopoietic stem cell transplant * Child hospitalized at least 5 times for VOC in the year preceding inclusion (psychic problems making difficult the evaluation of the pain) * Child who has already been included in the study during a previous VOC (each child participates in the study only once) * VOC evolving for more than 48 hours before admission to the emergency room * Acute splenic sequestration crisis at admission
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Conditions
The condition(s) this trial relates to.
As listed by the trial registrant
The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.
Contacts and locations
Locations
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Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal Créteil
Créteil, 94000, France
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Hôpital Antoine Béclère
Clamart, 92141, France
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Hôpital Armand Trousseau
Paris, 75012, France
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Hôpital Bicêtre
Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, 94270, France