PoCUS May Help Decongest Busy EDs by Expediting Diagnosis

Background: Acute dyspnea is a common presenting symptom in the emergency department (ED). Many pulmonary and cardiac diseases can present in this manner, and rapid diagnosis and treatment may result in better outcomes. Point-of-care lung ultrasonography (PoC-LUS) may reduce the time to diagnosis and the use of other modalities (eg, chest radiography, CT) in the ED, but PoC-LUS needs to be validated for this type of assessment. Objective: To evaluate agreement between the initial emergency physician diagnosis—including rapid clinical assessment and PoC-LUS at ED admission—and the attending physician diagnosis at admission, which included advanced imaging (CT), in patients presenting with dyspnea. Design: Prospective, pilot observational study. Participants/Methods: This study was conducted in the ED of a single tertiary care university hospital during a 2-year study period. Dyspneic patients presenting while the study physician was on call were included. Results: 103 pati more...