Critical Ultrasound Journal最新文献

The best diagnostic strategy to confirm or exclude pulmonary embolism (PE) suspicion needs an appropriate combination of clinical assessment, plasma D-dimer measurement, and computed tomographic pulmonary angiography (CTPA). CTPA should be used with caution in some patient groups, such as patients with known allergy to contrast media, those with severe renal insufficiency, and pregnant women, and could be not immediately available in case of unstable patients. In the emergency setting, alternative diagnostic strategies should be implemented to overcome CTPA limitations. Ultrasonography is certainly a valuable alternative diagnostic tool. In addition to echocardiography and lower limb compressive venous ultrasonography, lung ultrasound (US) may play an important role in selected patients' subgroups. Recent data on the diagnostic performance of a triple point-of-care US (lung, heart, and leg vein US) are discussed in the present paper, and pros and cons of triple point-of-care US are compared with those of standard diagnostic approaches.

Right heart thrombus (RHT) is a life-threatening diagnosis that is rarely made in the emergency department (ED), but with the increasing use of focused cardiac ultrasound (FocUS), more of these cases may be identified in a timely fashion. We present a case of an ill-appearing patient who had an immediate change in management due to the visualization of RHT soon after arrival to the ED. The diagnosis was confirmed after a cardiology-performed ultrasound (US). This case illustrates the value of the recognition of RHT on FocUS and how US protocols designed for the evaluation of shock and shortness of breath may potentially be expanded to patients in a 'compensated' or 'pre-shock' state to expedite the correct diagnosis and to facilitate more timely management.

Background: Aortic stenosis (AS) is a common valve problem that causes significant morbidity and mortality. The goal of this study was to determine whether an emergency physician (EP) could determine severe AS by reviewing only two B-mode echocardiographic views (parasternal long axis (PSLA) and parasternal short axis (PSSA)) obtained by trained echocardiographers.

Methods: A convenience sample of 60 patients with no AS, mild/moderate AS or severe AS was selected for health record and echocardiogram review. The echocardiograms were performed in an accredited echocardiography laboratory. An EP blinded to the cardiologist's final report reviewed the PSLA and PSSA views after the cases were randomly sorted. Severe AS was defined as no cusp movement seen by the EP reviewers. A second EP independently reviewed 25% of randomly selected patients for inter-rater reliability. Collected data included patient demographics, EP interpretation and details of each echo view (quality, the number of cusps visualized, presence of calcification) and compared to final cardiology reports. Analyses included descriptive statistics, test characteristics for severe AS and kappa for agreement.

Results: The mean age was 75.3 years (range 18 to 90) with 36.7% females. The cardiologist's diagnosis was as follows: 38.3% severe AS, 28.3% mild/moderate AS and 33.3% no AS. The PSSA view was poorer in quality compared with the PSLA (33.3% vs. 13.3%, p = 0.02), but the PSSA view was better than PSLA to visualize all three cusps (83.3% vs. 0%, p = 0.001). There was no difference in the presence of calcification between the mild/moderate and severe AS groups (94.1% vs. 100.0%, p = 0.46). The sensitivity and specificity for EP diagnosis of severe AS was 75.0% (95% CI 56.7% to 85.4%) and 92.5% (83.3% to 97.7%). The kappa for severe AS was 0.69 (0.41 to 0.85), and there was no significant difference between observers in the quality of the view, presence of aortic calcification and the number of cusps visible.

Conclusions: PSLA and PSSA views obtained by trained echocardiographers can be interpreted by an EP with appropriate training to identify severe AS with good specificity. Further larger prospective studies are required before widespread use by EPs.

The increasing use and complexity of imaging techniques have not been matched by increasing awareness and knowledge by prescribers and practitioners. Imaging examinations that expose to ionizing radiation provide immense benefits when appropriate, yet they may result in an increased incidence of radiation-induced cancer in the long-term. The radiation issue is relevant not only for the individual patient but also for the community because small individual risks multiplied by millions of examinations become a significant population risk. As recently highlighted by recent European and American Guidelines, the long-term risk associated with radiation exposure should be considered in the risk-benefit assessment behind appropriate prescription of diagnostic testing.

In some intensive care, nowadays, ultrasound diagnostics have become an extension of the physical examination (like a stethoscope). In this report, we discuss the case of an acute respiratory failure which arose immediately after the end of general anesthesia. An initial bedside ultrasound evaluation applying the 'BLUE protocol' showed no pathological changes capable of explaining the clinical picture; however, by evaluating also the right and left hemidiaphragms, we made a diagnosis of diaphragmatic dysfunction, which would probably have been difficult to diagnose without the aid of the diaphragm ultrasound. We therefore decided to avoid intubation, transfer the patient to the intensive care unit, and treat him conservatively with non-invasive ventilation only. To our knowledge, this is the first case report that has shown the usefulness of ultrasonography in detecting diaphragmatic dysfunction as a cause of acute respiratory failure with a subsequent change in patient management. The use of bedside ultrasonography provides practical functional information on the diaphragmatic function in patients with acute respiratory failure and can also be easily repeated if follow-up is required. This feature is still held in little consideration, but it can affect the diagnosis and the treatment of critically ill patients.