POCUS Journal Volume 08, Issue 01, released April 2023
Ankit Mehta, MD, FACP, SFHM; Kreegan Reierson, MD; Benji Mathews, MD, MBA, SFHM – The merits of utilizing point of care ultrasound (POCUS) in acutely ill patients is leading to a widespread embrace. Assessment of IVC via POCUS as part of a comprehensive multi-organ approach can help guide volume tolerance. Anatomical/developmental variations of IVC can vary widely in prevalence.
Figure 3: Axial view of the plain CT thorax showing low density collection in the pectoralis major muscle of the left hemithorax (a) with underlying costochondral junction showing break in cortex (b). – Tuberculosis (TB) remains a global public health concern; most notably in endemic countries where there is a rise in its incidence. Although primary pulmonary involvement accounts for the majority of TB cases, extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) is rapidly growing in high income countries.
Mujtaba Z. Al-Saray, MD; Ala Ali, MD – Volume overload is common in end stage kidney disease (ESKD) and dialysis patients. Hence, the need for objective tools to detect such volume excess. Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) is a goal-directed, bedside examination to answer such a specific diagnostic question.
Sydney Murray, BSc; Krista Trinder, MSc; Linden Kolbenson, MD; Jeremy Katulka, MD; Paul Olszynski, MD, MEd – Feedback on Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) skills is essential for skill development. Providing feedback can be difficult in a large province with several distributed medical education sites. Use of handheld POCUS devices and a cloud-based image archiving enables virtual supervision. We evaluated the quality of uploaded images as well as feedback provided to students.
Reshma Sabnani, MD; Celia S. Willard, MD; Carolina Vega, MD; Zachary W. Binder MD – Pediatric residency programs often do not include a point of care ultrasound (POCUS) curriculum. We analyzed a novel POCUS curriculum for pediatric residents that incorporated an online question bank (QB), in addition to a traditional teaching model of didactic instruction and hands-on learning experience.
M. Bryan Dalla Betta, DO; Dasia Esener, MD; William Swanson, MD; Andrew Kaddis, MD; Felipe Aguayo Romero, MD; J. Matthew Fields, MD – Sepsis is a syndrome characterized by infection, widespread inflammation and organ dysfunction affecting millions of people in the United States and across the globe each year. Despite recent improvements in sepsis care, it is still associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality, accounting for nearly 270,000 deaths and treatment costs over $20 billion in the United States annually.
Sherwin Wong, BHSc, MD; Salwa Nihal, MD(MBBS), MPhil, MSc; Danny Yu Jia Ke, BSc; Emma Neary; Luke Wu MD, MSc; Edwin Ocran, MBChB MSc; Michael Cenkowski, MD, FRCPC; Nicholas Grubic, BScH, MSc; Stephen C. Pang, PhD; Amer M. Johri MD, MSc, FRCPC, FASE – In response to the growing demand for bedside ultrasound skills, medical schools in Canada and internationally have attempted to integrate point of care ultrasound (POCUS) into their curriculum. This is traditionally done in small groups with in-person sessions. However, this method is resource-intensive and requires sufficient equipment and expertise.
Samantha A. King, MD; Alexis Salerno, MD; Jessica V. Downing, MD; Zachary R. Wynne, MD; Jordan T. Parker, MD; Taylor E. Miller, MD; Semhar Z. Tewelde, MD – Emergency and critical care physicians frequently encounter patients presenting with dyspnea and normal left ventricular systolic function who may benefit from early diastolic evaluation to determine acute patient management. The current American Society of Echocardiography Guidelines approach to diastolic evaluation is often impractical for point of care ultrasound (POCUS) evaluation, and few studies have evaluated the potential use of a simplified approach.
Miguel Romano, MD; Eduardo Viana, MS; José Diogo Martins, MD; Rogério Corga da Silva, MD – Sepsis is defined as a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection with a high mortality rate. Septic shock is a subset of sepsis with manifest circulatory dysfunction (use of vasopressors and persistent elevation of lactic acid) . As stated in literature, in addition to the use of empiric antibiotics and control of the infectious focus, intravenous fluid therapy is an essential intervention to promote hemodynamic stabilization. However, the literature also describes harmful outcomes related to fluid overload.