Alexandra Cugerian-Ratiu

Dr. Alexandra Cugerian-Ratiu


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

2Years (2025-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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RIRaluca Isac
Raluca Isac
ACAlexandra Cugerian-Ratiu
Alexandra Cugerian-Ratiu
AAAndrada Mara Ardelean
Andrada Mara Ardelean
ABAlexandra Bodescu
Alexandra Bodescu
LVLaura Adelina Vlad
Laura Adelina Vlad
GDGabriela Doros
Gabriela Doros
Background: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is the leading cause of mortality in children from middle- to low-income countries; diagnosing CAP includes clinical evaluation, laboratory testing and pulmonary imaging. Lung ultrasound (LUS) is a sensitive, accessible, non-invasive, non-radiant method for accurately evaluating the lung involvement in acute diseases. Whether LUS findings can be correlated with CAP’s severity or sepsis risk remains debatable. This study aimed to increase the importance of LUS in diagnosing and monitoring CAP. We analyzed 102 children aged 1 month up to 18 years, hospital admitted with CAP. Mean age was 5.71 ± 4.85 years. Underweight was encountered in 44.11% of children, especially below 5 years, while overweight was encountered in 11.36% of older children and adolescents. Patients with CAP presented with fever (79.41%), cough (97.05%), tachypnea (18.62%), respiratory failure symptoms (20.58%), chest pain (12.74%) or poor feeding. Despite the fact that 21.56% had clinically occult CAP and six patients (5.88%) experienced radiologically occult pneumonia, CAP diagnosis was established based on anomalies detected using LUS. Conclusions: Detailed clinical examination with abnormal/modified breath sounds and/or tachypnea is suggestive of acute pneumonia. LUS is a sensitive diagnostic tool. A future perspective of including LUS in the diagnosis algorithm of CAP should be taken into consideration.