Clinical Note
Lung Ultrasound in Patients with Acute Respiratory Failure Reduces Conventional Imaging and Health Care Provider Exposure to COVID-19

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2020.04.033Get rights and content

Abstract

Lung ultrasound gained a leading position in the last year as an imaging technique for the assessment and management of patients with acute respiratory failure. In coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), its role may be of further importance because it is performed bedside and may limit chest X-ray and the need for transport to radiology for computed tomography (CT) scan. Since February 21, we progressively turned into a coronavirus-dedicated intensive care unit and applied an ultrasound-based approach to avoid traditional imaging and limit contamination as much as possible. We performed a complete daily examination with lung ultrasound score computation and systematic search of complications (pneumothorax, ventilator-associated pneumonia); on-duty physicians were free to perform CT or chest X-ray when deemed indicated. We compared conventional imaging exams performed in the first 4 wk of the COVID-19 epidemic with those in the same time frame in 2019: there were 84 patients in 2020 and 112 in 2019; 64 and 22 (76.2% vs. 19.6%, p < 0.001) had acute respiratory failure, respectively, of which 55 (85.9%) were COVID-19 in 2020. When COVID-19 patients in 2020 were compared with acute respiratory failure patients in 2019, the median number of chest X-rays was 1.0 (1.0–2.0) versus 3.0 (1.0–4.0) (p = 0.0098); 2 patients 2 (3.6%) versus 7 patients (31.8%) had undergone at least one thoracic CT scan (p = 0.001). A self-imposed ultrasound-based approach reduces the number of chest X-rays and thoracic CT scans in COVID-19 patients compared with patients with standard acute respiratory failure, thus reducing the number of health care providers exposed to possible contamination and sparing personal protective equipment.

Key Words

Lung ultrasound
Lung monitoring
COVID-19
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
ARDS

Cited by (0)

On behalf of the Group for Research in Intensive Care in Pavia (the GRIP): Francesco Mojoli, Silvia Mongodi, Anita Orlando, Marco Pozzi, Guido Tavazzi, Eric Arisi, Luca Caneva, Giuseppe Maggio, Luca Civardi, Giuseppe Sala Gallini, Roberta Puce, Federico Visconti, Fiorenza Ferrari, Alessandro Amatu, Andrea Stella, Andrea Colombo, Silvia Bonaiti, Giulia Salve, Sandro Pregnolato, Margherita Cavagnino, Eleonora Pariani, Francesco Daverio, Giada Bettini, Gilda Maria Siano, Cinzia Villa, Valentino Dammassa, Erminio Santangelo.

On behalf of the Pavia COVID-19 Task Force: Carlo Marena, Monica Calvi, Giuseppina Grugnetti, Marco Maurelli, Alba Muzzi, Raffaele Bruno, Paolo Lago, Gianluigi Marseglia, Stefano Perlini, Alessandra Palo, Fausto Baldanti, Luigi Oltrona Visconti, Angelo Guido Corsico, Antonio Di Sabatino, Francesco Mojoli, Giorgio Iotti, Marco Benazzo, Carlo Nicora, Antonio Triarico, Vincenzo Petronella.

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