Femoral Pulse Ultrasound Assessment Accuracy by Emergency Medicine Trainees on a Porcine Model

of care ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly used in emergency medicine (EM), including EM physician residents and EM physician assistant (EMPA) residents. Scant literature assesses accuracy and duration of POCUS pulse assessment by this group during cardiac resuscitation given recommendations for minimal pauses in chest compressions. Evaluation is needed for accuracy and duration of pulse interpretation in EM trainees utilizing POCUS.

We conducted a double-blind observational study of EM clinician trainee POCUS assessment of pulses using porcine models. Volunteers were blinded to the cardiac status of 5 porcine models randomized as deceased or living and performed femoral artery evaluation using color power Doppler POCUS. The primary outcome was accuracy of pulse assessment. Secondary outcomes included time to verbalization and differences based on reported duration of EM training, experience with ultrasound, and cardiac arrest resuscitation experience.

17 EM and EMPA trainees completed 85 total POCUS pulse assessments with 98.82% accuracy (n=84). Mean verbalization time was 6.95 seconds, and most verbalized interpretations were within 10-seconds (82.4%, n=70). This was grossly consistent between living and deceased models. Subgroup analysis found no significant differences of accuracy or verbalization time based on reported demographics.

EM clinician trainees demonstrate a high degree of accuracy and low average time for verbalized interpretation of femoral artery pulse assessment, most within recommended time guidelines. Further study is needed to correlate these findings in human patients.