Unveiling the Diagnostic Power of Point-of-Care Ultrasound for Adult Patients Presenting with Dyspnea in Emergency Medicine: A Systematic Review. | ||||
Egyptian Journal of Anaesthesia | ||||
Volume 41, Issue 1, 2025, Page 1-8 PDF (465.12 K) | ||||
Document Type: Original Article | ||||
DOI: 10.21608/egja.2025.366640.1027 | ||||
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Authors | ||||
Mohammed F. Abosamak ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||||
1Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt. | ||||
2Cardiology Department, Al Jufairi Diagnosis and Treatment, MOH, Qatar. | ||||
3Emergency Medicine Department, Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar. | ||||
4Internal Medicine Department, Mansoura General Hospital, Mansoura, Egypt. | ||||
5Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hamad General Hospital - Doha – Qatar. | ||||
6College of Medicine, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar. | ||||
Abstract | ||||
Background Dyspnea is one of the major reasons patients visit the emergency department (ED). Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) is a novel approach in diagnosing dyspnea, which is comparable to conventional diagnostic modalities such as chest X-rays. Methodology A comprehensive literature search was conducted until December 2024. Results Our electronic search yielded 510 articles, among which 9 observational studies summarizing data from 3605 patients met our inclusion criteria and were thus included in the review. Our review found that POCUS improved the concordance between ED diagnosis and the final diagnosis from kappa (0.45; 95% CI [0.31, 0.58]) in standard protocol to kappa (0.56; 95% CI [0.43, 0.69] [1] in POCUS based protocols. Furthermore, our review found that the sensitivity of POCUS for the different etiologies for dyspnea ranged from 88% (85.1%-90.6%) to 100.0% (78.2% - 100.0%) for congestive heart failure (CHF), 64.7% (38.3-85.8) to 86.8% (84.2% - 89.2%) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and 88.5% (86.4% - 90.3%) to 100% (78.2 - 100) for pneumonia. In terms of specificity, our review found that the specificity of POCUS ranged from 95.2% (83.8% - 99.4%) to 96% (95% - 96.8%) for diagnosing CHF, 93.3% (77.9% - 99.2%) to 96.1% (95.1% -96.9%) for COPD, 74% (64% – 82%) to 91.6% (90.1% - 92.9%) for pneumonia. Conclusion Our study has found that POCUS is a potential diagnostic modality for acute dyspnea in the emergency department. However, limited research exists on its utility in diagnosing different etiologies of dyspnea. | ||||
Keywords | ||||
Diagnostic Modality; Dyspnea; Emergency Medicine; Point-of-Care Ultrasound | ||||
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