of ultrasound supervision independent of the time of day or night. On the system level, this provides a more standardized and supervised foundation on which to base ultrasoundguided management decisions that can significantly affect patient outcomes. On a provider level, it ensures that medical trainees and physician extenders can feel more confident in their technical image acquisition and image interpretation skills.
Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for judicious use of diagnostic tests and to limit personnel exposure has led to increased use and dependence on point-ofcare ultrasound (POCUS) examinations. We reviewed POCUS findings in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for acute respiratory failure with COVID-19 and correlated the findings to severity of illness and 30-day outcomes. Methods: Patients admitted to the ICU in March and April 2020 were reviewed for inclusion (acute hypoxemic respiratory failure secondary to COVID-19 pneumonia; documentation of POCUS findings). Results: Forty-three patients met inclusion criteria. B lines and pleural thickening were associated with a lower PaO 2 / FiO 2 by 71 (P = .005; adjusted R 2 = 0.24). Right ventricle (RV) dilation was more common in patients with 30-day mortality (P = .02) and was a predictor of mortality when adjusted for hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and age (odds ratio,12.0; P = .048). All patients with RV dilation had bilateral B lines with pleural irregularities. Conclusions: Although lung ultrasound abnormalities are prevalent in patients with severe disease, RV involvement seems to be predictive of outcomes. Further studies are needed to discern the etiology and pathophysiology of RV dilation in COVID-19.
Ultrasound has evolved into a core bedside tool for diagnostic and management purposes for all subsets of adult and pediatric critically-ill patients. Teleintensive care unit coverage has undergone a similar rapid expansion period throughout the United States. Round-the-clock access to ultrasound equipment is very common in today's intensive care unit, but 24/7 coverage with staff trained to acquire and interpret point-of-care ultrasound in real time is lagging behind equipment availability. Medical trainees and physician extenders require attending level supervision to ensure consistent image acquisition and accurate interpretation. Teleintensivists can extend the utility of ultrasound by supervising and guiding providers without or with only partial training in ultrasound, and also by extending direct trainee ultrasound supervision to time periods when no direct bedside attending supervisor is available, and when treatment decisions otherwise would have been made without supervision and feedback on image acquisition and interpretation. Nursing staff without ultrasound training can also be directed to perform basic ultrasound exams, which may have immediate diagnostic and/or treatment consequences, thereby overcoming access barriers in the absence of physicians or physician extenders. We discuss 4 real-life clinical scenarios in which teleintensivist supervision extended and standardized bedside ultrasound exams to guide management decisions which significantly impacted patient outcomes.
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