The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine

Neonatal Point-of-Care Lung and Critical Ultrasound

Point-of-care of ultrasound (POCUS) refers to an ultrasound technique that is performed by clinical medical staff with intensive care capabilities in the intensive care unit (ICU). It enables real-time acquisition of patients' pathophysiological and hemodynamic information, thereby providing individualized management plans for clinical decision-making.

POCUS (especially lung ultrasound and critical ultrasound) enables us to quickly obtain the potential causes and severity of organ dysfunction and failure in critically ill patients, significantly improving the accuracy and reliability of diagnosis. Therefore, POCUS plays an increasingly important role in guiding the timely and correct treatment and care of critically ill patients, improving the safety of critically ill patients in pathological conditions and enhancing prognosis. It has become an essential skill for the treatment of neonatal lung and critical illnesses.

Lung ultrasound (LUS) has recently become a frequently used diagnostic tool in everyday neonatal clinical practice among both clinicians and radiologists. Its application comprises both congenital and acquired lung diseases. It can significantly reduce the use of chest X-rays (CXRs) in the neonatal population from its application in neonatal intensive care to the detection of erery kind of lung disease with a higher accuracy compared to CXRs. Dynamic monitoring of changes in neonatal pulmonary conditions is one of the major advantages of LUS, which can help neonatologists in decision-making in this most vulnerable group of newborns. In some advanced NICUs, LUC has even replaced CXR as the routine diagnostic tool used in the wards.

Apart from LUS, critical care ultrasound (including functional echocardiography) has also played an indispensable and significant role in guiding the management of critically ill newborns and saving the lives of critical ill patients. For instance, fluid management for shock infants, hemodynamic monitoring and cardiac function monitoring for critically ill children, as well as monitoring of complications of severe diseases, etc. It can be said that the era of diagnosing newborn diseases solely through stethoscopes and X-rays has passed. POCUS has become an essential skill for NICU staff.

Th topic of the collection includes but is not limited to the following aspects:

• The research, application and new discoveries of LUS, critical ultrasound and functional echocardiography in the diagnosis, treatment and nursing management of various lung and critical diseases of the organ systems in newborn infants (such as central and peripheral nerves, heart and blood vessels, lungs, abdomen and genitourinary system, trauma, shock and hemodynamic disorders, congenital malformations, etc.), especially those related to multi-center and prospective studies.
• Basic and Experimental Research on Ultrasound in Neonatal Critical I
• Research and application of artificial intelligence-assisted diagnosis technology in the critical care of newborns.
• The forms of the papers include but are not limited to original research, short reports, outstanding case studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, expert lectures, etc.
• The application of point-of-care Hemodynamic monitoring in neonatal critical patients.
• Guidelines or expert consensus on the application of LUS and critical ultrasound in neonatal fields.

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisor for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts. 

Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript. 

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is September 30th, 2026.

Please contact Menghan Li at [email protected]  with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

Please be sure to select the appropriate Article Collection from the drop-down menu in the submission system.