Portable ultrasonography in critical care

A 2-year retrospective analysis of portable ultrasound examinations in the intensive care unit was conducted to evaluate the indications and efficacy of portable sonography. A total of 86 examinations were performed on 79 patients. Of these, 22 per cent of the examinations supported the suspected diagnosis and contributed to treatment. Seventy per cent of the examinations excluded the suspected diagnosis. There was a 9 per cent incidence that yielded unsuspected information that contributed to treatment. Only 8 per cent of the examinations were misleading or proven false. The authors found that with an overall sensitivity of 79 per cent and specificity of 97 per cent, portable ultrasonography is a valuable, relatively inexpensive test in the critical care setting.