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Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) is routinely used in the evaluation of trauma patients, yet has not been shown to be useful in non–traumatically ill patients. In a study of emergency department patients who presented with nontraumatic hypotension, researchers in Italy evaluated a protocol for immediate point-of-care ultrasonography performed by board-certified emergency physicians with ultrasound competence. They prospectively enrolled 108 patients (ages 18 to 95) with hypotension (systolic blood pressure <100 mm Hg on presentation) plus at least one of the following: unresponsiveness, altered mental status, syncope, respiratory distress, profound asthenia with fatigue and malaise, or severe chest or abdominal pain.
The …