Point‐of‐care ultrasound with pocket‐size devices in emergency department

Abstract

Point‐of‐care ultrasound is a useful tool for clinicians in the management of patients. Particularly in emergency department, the role of point‐of‐care ultrasound is strongly increasing due to the need for a rapid assessment of critically ill patients and to speed up the diagnostic process. Hand‐carried ultrasound devices are particularly useful in emergency setting and allow rapid assessment of patient even in prehospital setting. This article will review the role of point‐of‐care ultrasonography, performed with pocket‐size devices, in the management of patients presenting with acute onset of undifferentiating dyspnea, chest pain, and shock in emergency department.

The Use of Handheld Ultrasound Devices in Emergency Medicine

“…Advanced echocardiographic applications are also lacking in the HHU world. Focused cardiac US can still be qualitatively performed with HHU, but few current devices offer spectral Doppler capabilities, thus precluding their use for quantitative applications [ 5 , 8 , 11 , 12 •, 13 ].

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Reproducibility and diagnostic accuracy of pocket-sized ultrasound devices in ruling out compensated cirrhosis of mixed etiology

“…To address the growing interest in this field, many recently published studies describe the usefulness of a pocket-sized ultrasound device (PUD) examination in emergency, clinical, or general practice settings, improving the allocation of more complex and expensive resources and answering common clinical questions [2][3][4][5][6][7].…”

Diagnostic accuracy of inferior vena cava evaluation in the diagnosis of acute heart failure among dyspneic patients

“…IVC evaluation was performed with a pocket ultrasound device (Vscan of General Electric Healthcare) with a single probe (1.7-3.8 MHz), using cardiac preset in sub-costal window [9]. Off-line measures for IVC diameter and collapsibility were performed.…”

“…Four levels of estimated right atrial pressure (eRAP) were identified according with the combination of IVC maximum diameter and collapsibility based on current guidelines [10]. Ejection fraction (EF) was estimated visually and categorized as preserved if >40% (n=100) or reduced if ≤40% (n=55) from apical view [9].…”