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Consensus was achieved to direct training curriculum, oversight, quality assurance and maintenance of competence for critical care ultrasound. In providing the first national guideline of its kind, these Canadian recommendations may also serve as a model of critical care ultrasound dissemination for other countries.

The use of point of care echocardiography by non-cardiologist in acute care settings such as the emergency department (ED) or the intensive care unit (ICU) is very common. Unlike diagnostic echocardiography, the scope of such point of care exams is often restricted to address the clinical questions raised by the patient’s differential diagnosis or chief complaint in order to inform immediate management decisions. In this article, an overview of the most common applications of this focused echocardiography in the ED and ICU is provided. This includes but is not limited to the evaluation of patients experiencing hypotension, cardiac arrest, cardiac trauma, chest pain and patients after cardiac surgery.

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In the unconscious patient, there is a diagnostic void between the neurologic physical exam, and more invasive, costly and potentially harmful investigations. Transcranial color-coded sonography and two-dimensional transcranial Doppler imaging of the brain have the potential to be a middle ground to bridge this gap for certain diagnoses. With the increasing availability of point-of-care ultrasound devices, coupled with the need for rapid diagnosis of deteriorating neurologic patients, intensivists may be trained to perform point-of-care transcranial Doppler at the bedside. The feasibility and value of this technique in the intensive care unit to help rule-in specific intra-cranial pathologies will form the focus of this article. The proposed scope for point-of-care transcranial Doppler for the intensivist will be put forth and illustrated using four representative cases: presence of midline shift, vasospasm, raised intra-cranial pressure, and progression of cerebral circulatory arrest. We will review the technical details, including methods of image acquisition and interpretation. Common pitfalls and limitations of point-of-care transcranial Doppler will also be reviewed, as they must be understood for accurate diagnoses during interpretation, as well as the drawbacks and inadequacies of the modality in general.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13089-017-0077-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundTransesophageal echocardiography (TEE) offers several advantages over transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). Despite these advantages, use of TEE by emergency physicians (EPs) remains rare, as no focused TEE protocol for emergency department (ED) use has been defined nor have methods of training been described.ObjectiveThis study aims to develop a focused TEE examination tailored for the ED and to evaluate TEE skill acquisition and retention by TEE-naïve EPs following a focused 4-h curriculum.MethodsAcademic EPs were invited to participate in a 4-h didactic and simulation-based workshop. The seminar emphasized TEE principles and views obtained from four vantage points. Following the training, participants engaged in an assessment of their abilities to carry out a focused TEE on a high-fidelity simulator. A 6-week follow-up session assessed skill retention.ResultsFourteen EPs participated in this study. Immediately following the seminar, 14 (100 %; k = 1.0) and 10 (71.4 %, k = 0.65) successfully obtained an acceptable mid-esophageal four-chamber and mid-esophageal long-axis view. Eleven (78.6 %, k = 1.0) participants were able to successfully obtain an acceptable transgastric short-axis view, and 11 (78.6 %, k = 1.0) EPs successfully obtained a bicaval view. Twelve participants engaged in a 6-week retention assessment, which revealed acceptable images and inter-rater agreement as follows: mid-esophageal four-chamber, 12 (100 %; k = 0.92); mid-esophageal long axis, 12 (100 %, k = 0.67); transgastric short-axis, 11 (91.7 %, k = 1.0); and bicaval view, 11 (91.7 %, k = 1.0).ConclusionThis study has illustrated that EPs can successfully perform this focused TEE protocol after a 4-h workshop with retention of these skills at 6 weeks.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13089-015-0027-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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