The role of critical care ultrasonography in acute respiratory distress

Introduction: Acute Respiratory Distress and/or Failure (ARF), is a common and serious presentation of patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) and traditional diagnosis has a low accuracy except CT chest which may inappropriate to all patient. Bedside ultrasound (US) is now emerging as a valuable tool in dynamic assessment of lungs, heart, vessels and hemodynamic status. Aim of the work: Our aim in this study was to evaluate the diagnostic utility of combined cardiac and thoracic critical care ultrasonography in identifying causes of Acute Respiratory Distress and/or Failure in the early course of critical illness. Patients and method: This prospective observational study was conducted on adult patient admitted to Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU), Department of Internal medicine, Al Hussein university hospital, Al Azhar University. All included patients underwent bedside CPUS including lung ultrasound (US) and transthoracic echocardiography plus targeted venous US by single investigator, blinded to clinical data. The US diagnosis of ARF etiology was shared with treating intensivist. Initial clinicaldiagnosis (ICD) of each patient were compared with post US clinical diagnosis