Diagnostic accuracy of focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) examinations performed by emergency medical technicians.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) examinations when used by emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to detect the presence of free abdominal fluid.

METHODS

Six level 1 EMTs (similar to intermediate EMTs in the United States) who worked at a tertiary emergency department in Korea underwent an educational program consisting of two one-hour didactic lectures that included the principles of ultrasonography, the anatomy of the abdomen, and two hours of hands-on practice. After this educational session, the EMTs performed FAST examinations on a convenience sample of patients from July 1 to October 5, 2009. These patients also received an abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan regardless of their chief complaints. The CT findings served as the definitive standard and were interpreted routinely and independently by emergency radiologists who were blinded to the study protocol. In addition, the EMTs were blinded to the CT findings. A positive CT finding was defined as the presence of free fluid, as interpreted by the radiologist. The sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Informed consent was obtained from all participating patients.

RESULTS

Among the 1,060 eligible patients with abdominal CT scans, 403 patients were asked to participate in the study, and 240 patients agreed. Of these 240 patients, 80 (33.3%) had results showing the presence of free fluid. Fourteen patients had a significant amount of peritoneal cavity fluid, 15 had a moderate amount of peritoneal cavity fluid, and 51 had a minimal amount of peritoneal cavity fluid. Compared with the CT findings, the diagnostic performance of the FAST examination had a sensitivity of 61.3% (95% CI, 50.3%-71.2%), specificity of 96.3% (95% CI, 92.1%-98.3%), positive predictive value of 89.1% (95% CI, 77.0%-95.4%), and negative predictive value of 83.2% (95% CI, 76.9%-88.2%). For a significant or moderate amount of peritoneal cavity fluid, the sensitivity was considerably higher (86.2%).

CONCLUSION

EMTs in Korea showed a high diagnostic performance that was comparable to that of surgeons and physicians when detecting peritoneal cavity free fluid in a Korean emergency department setting. The validity of FAST examinations in prehospital care situations should be investigated further.