Practical approach to lung ultrasound

Abstract

Lung ultrasound (LU) relies on direct visualization of structures and artifact interpretation. Probe selectionUS machines available in critical care settings are likely to have either a linear (vascular access probe), curvilinear (abdominal probe) or phased array (echo probe), or a combination. A great advantage of LU is that useful images can be obtained with each of these. Each probe has pros and cons.

From bedside to bench: lung ultrasound for the assessment of pulmonary edema in animal models

“…As a result, different compositions of healthy and diseased lungs generate different artifactual patterns in LUS that can be utilized for diagnostic purposes (Fig. 1) (Miller 2016). For example, Fig.…”

Lung Ultrasound: The Emerging Role of Respiratory Therapists

“…These probes have a small footprint for fitting between the ribs to demonstrate all the signs of LUS, but the image clarity of the images is not as good compared to linear or curvilinear probes. 13 Even though most ultrasound machines have uniform functional features, there remains some variation in the designs of different manufacturers. Hence it is important to become acquainted with the modes and controls of the specific machine before scanning.…”

“…20 LUS necessitates the understanding of the following 10 basic signs for interpreting underlying normal and ab- normal lung conditions. 13,21,22 These signs have been assessed in various studies and have diagnostic accuracies ranging from 90 -100%, which makes LUS a reasonable choice for the accepted bedside standard. 23 For any ultrasound image obtained, a baseline image is required to correlate normal with abnormal.…”

“…The typical back and forth movement of the pleural line with breathing will not be seen if there is any pleural involvement (pneumothorax, pleural effusion, pleurodesis) or lung involvement (pneumonectomy, pneumonia, lung intubation). 13 M-mode is also used to confirm absent lung sliding. The resultant M-mode image in a pneumothorax will only display 1 pattern of parallel horizontal lines above and below the pleural line, demonstrating the lack of movement.…”

“…Lung point is considered as confirmatory for pneumothorax, pro- vided lung sliding and B-lines are absent. 13 This point will be visible by activating the M-mode and keeping the probe in the area at which the sliding is appearing and disappearing. Lung point represents the meeting point where lung inflation and deflation take place.…”