Effectiveness of serial focused ultrasound of the lungs and inferior vena cava for monitoring patients with acute dyspnea: a systematic review protocol.

Objective: The objective of this review is to evaluate the effectiveness of serial focused ultrasound of the lungs (FLUS) and/or inferior vena cava (IVC) compared to standard care for monitoring patients with acute dyspnea.

Introduction: Acute dyspnea is one of the most common complaints reported by patients in hospital emergency departments, and has high in-hospital mortality rates. The current methods of monitoring patients with acute dyspnea lack both sensitivity and specificity. Point-of-care FLUS and IVC is a promising monitoring tool, but an overview of the existing evidence is absent.

Inclusion criteria: This review will include studies of adult patients admitted to hospital with acute dyspnea that is examined via FLUS, IVC or both a minimum of twice during hospitalization compared to standard care.

Methods: The following electronic databases will be searched: PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar. Gray literature will be sought in OpenGrey and ProQuest. The search is limited to articles written in English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and German. Articles published before 2003 will be excluded from the search and duplicates will be removed. Two independent reviewers will screen and critically appraise the included studies and perform the data extraction. If possible, data will be synthesized with statistical meta-analysis; otherwise, data will be presented in narrative form.

Systematic review registration number: PROSPERO CRD42018116608.