Point-of-Care Ultrasound for Right Heart Strain in Pulmonary Embolism

If critical care fellows can learn this, so can emergency clinicians!

In patients with confirmed pulmonary embolism (PE), evidence of right heart strain is important in treatment and disposition decisions (patients with right heart strain should not be managed as outpatients initially). Right heart strain can be identified with laboratory (B-type natriuretic peptide, troponin), imaging (computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, echocardiography), or electrocardiography findings, but none of these is perfect and easily accessible. These authors tested whether critical care fellows and attendings could correctly identify right heart strain using goal-directed ultrasonography.

Critical care fellows each attended a 3-day course in critical care ultrasonography. Among 287 patients with confirmed PE, 154 unde…

Reviewing Author

Daniel M. Lindberg, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Grant/Research SupportEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; MINDSOURCE

Editorial BoardsThe Quarterly Update: Reviews of Current Child Abuse Medical Research; Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesThe Helfer Society (Executive Committee Member)