Barts Heart Centre, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, West Smithfield EC1A 7BE, UK; Centre for Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging and Research, William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, EC1A 7BE, UK.
Institute of Advanced Biomedical Technologies, Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, "G.d'Annunzio" University, 66100 Chieti, Italy; Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Jan Waldenströms gata 35, 205 02 Malmö, Sweden.
Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2020 Sep-Oct;63(5):690-695. doi: 10.1016/j.pcad.2020.07.003. Epub 2020 Jul 10.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are likely to see a significant increase in the requests for rapid assessment of cardiac function, due to the frequent pre-existence of cardiac pathologies in patients admitted to hospital, and to the emergence of specific cardiac manifestations of this infection, such as myocarditis, sepsis related cardiomyopathy, stress induced cardiomyopathy and acute coronary syndromes. Hand-held, point-of-care ultrasound (HH-POCUS) is particularly suited for the provision of rapid, focused, integrated assessments of the heart and lungs. We present a review of the indications and protocols for focused HH-POCUS use in an acute setting and formulate proposals for streamlining their application in the COVID-19 context towards guiding optimum management of these patients while at the same time allowing adherence to robust infection control measures to provide safety to both the patient and our clinical staff.
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，由于住院患者中经常存在心脏病变，以及这种感染出现特定的心脏表现，如心肌炎、脓毒症相关心肌病、应激性心肌病和急性冠状动脉综合征，因此我们可能会看到对快速评估心脏功能的需求显著增加。手持式即时超声心动图（HH-POCUS）特别适合对心脏和肺部进行快速、重点、综合评估。我们回顾了在急性情况下使用集中式 HH-POCUS 的适应症和方案，并提出了简化其在 COVID-19 背景下应用的建议，以指导对这些患者进行最佳管理，同时遵守严格的感染控制措施，为患者和我们的临床工作人员提供安全保障。
