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Diagnostic Capacity of Pocket-Sized Ultrasound Devices at Point of Care by a Non-radiologist Resident in Patients with Suspected Abdominal Pathology.
Ultrasound Med Biol. 2019 Nov 22;:
Authors: López Zúñiga MÁ, Vallejo Palomino T, Martin Toro MA, Castillo Fernández AM, Gerez Neira D, Vílchez Parras AM, Villa García MI, Martínez Colmenero J, Padilla Moreno F, Campos Calero A, Torres Macho J
Abstract
Studies have reported the usefulness and tolerability in practice of abdominal ultrasound performed by non-radiologists in various clinical situations. This prospective observational single-center study included 184 patients hospitalized in an internal medicine department who underwent conventional abdominal ultrasound. A medical resident with basic training performed point-of-care clinical ultrasound using a pocket-sized device. The concordance obtained between the researcher and the radiologist was good (k >0.6) for the gallbladder, splenomegaly, longitudinal diameter of the kidney, presence of renal cysts and hydronephrosis. The specificity was >90% for all parameters assessed except normal renal size. A negative predictive value >90% was obtained for all variables studied except the presence of hepatic space-occupying lesions and gallbladder pathology, the negative predictive values for which were >80%. A positive predictive value >80% was obtained for all of these variables, except the presence of adenopathies, hepatomegaly, space-occupying lesions, echogenicity and/or enlargement of the biliary tract, left renal atrophy and right renal masses. We conclude there was a high concordance between a conventional abdominal study and that performed with a pocket-sized ultrasound device after a brief learning curve.
PMID: 31767453 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]