Response to letter regarding “Comparison of lung ultrasound, chest radiographs, C‐reactive protein, and clinical findings in dogs treated for aspiration pneumonia”

3 In the authors' experience, this border tends to vary with species, breed, respiratory effort and underlying lung lesions. 3 It is also the authors' experience that it can be difficult to determine the caudal extent of the lung margin on a lateral radiograph, particularly given this border changes during the respiratory cycle. [...]it is interesting to note that as VetBLUE increases the sites assessed from a single intercostal space to multiple intercostal spaces, it more closely aligns with earlier studies published by Dr Armenise 6 and the protocol used in the current study. An abstract in dogs suggests LUS protocols that examine larger lung surface area can detect pathology otherwise missed with protocols that scan less lung surface area, although this is a small study and prospective veterinary studies are needed to know how many sites need to be scanned to maximize sensitivity and specificity at finding underlying pleural and lung pathology. 8 The duration of time to perform lung ultrasound will likely need to be balanced against the speed with which a diagnosis needs to be made.