NCT01287429

Lung Ultrasound for Acute Dyspnea in Emergency Department

Lung Ultrasound for Acute Dyspnea in Emergency Department - Prospective Multicenter Study on Accuracy, Reproducibility, and Diagnostic Impact of Lung Ultrasound in the Evaluation of Patients With Dyspnea in the Emergency Department

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 1,005 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Turin, Italy · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Dyspnea is a frequent symptom in patients admitted to the Emergency Department (ED); discriminating between cardiogenic and non-cardiogenic dyspnea is a common clinical dilemma. The initial diagnostic work-out is often not very accurate in defining the etiology and the underlying pathophysiology. In the last years, lung ultrasound (US) has emerged as a useful real-time bedside diagnostic tool in the critical patient. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy, reproducibility, and diagnostic impact of pleural and lung US, performed by emergency physicians at the time of patient first presentation to the ED, in identifying cardiac causes of acute dyspnea.

Conditions

• Dyspnea
• Congestive Heart Failure

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	lung and pleural ultrasound	After the initial diagnostic work-out (medical history, physical examination, EKG, arterious blood gas), the emergency physician will classify dyspnoea in cardiogenic or respiratory dyspnoea and write it down in a specific form (clinical form). Immediately after this, lung and pleural ultrasound will be performed: the physician will describe it and evaluate the etiology again (integrated evaluation form). Then a chest X-ray evaluation will be performed for each patient.

Timeline

• Start date: 2010-10-01
• Primary completion: 2012-10-01
• Completion: 2012-10-01
• First posted: 2011-02-01
• Last updated: 2012-11-20

Locations

7 sites across 1 country: Italy