Best Practice Recommendations for Point-of-Care Lung Ultrasound in Patients with Suspected COVID-19.

BACKGROUND

Lung point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is a critical tool for evaluating patients with dyspnea in the emergency department (ED), including patients with suspected coronavirus disease (COVID)-19. However, given the threat of nosocomial disease spread, the use of ultrasound is no longer risk free.

OBJECTIVE

Here, we review the lung POCUS findings in patients with COVID-19. In doing so we present a scanning protocol for lung POCUS in COVID-19 that maximizes clinical utility and provider safety.

DISCUSSION

In COVID-19 lung, POCUS findings are predominantly located in the posterior and lateral lung zones bilaterally. A six-zone scanning protocol that prioritizes obtaining images in these locations optimizes provider positioning, and minimizes time spent scanning, which can reduce risk to health care workers performing POCUS.

CONCLUSIONS

Lung POCUS can offer valuable clinical data when evaluating patients with COVID-19. Scanning protocols such as that presented here, which target clinical utility and decreased nosocomial disease spread, must be prioritized.