Dr. Hames has recorded a second chapter for the FAST component of our Point of Care Ultrasound Series. This screencast spends more time on identifying potential errors leading to false negative and false positive studies.
In follow up to the tutorial on lung ultrasound image acquisition, this tutorial reviews the essential "signatures" of lung and pleural ultrasound that guide image interpretation. Go ahead - take 20 minutes and unlock the power of lung ultrasound through this review of the 5 essential findings: 1. Lung sliding (along with lung pulse, lung point) 2. A lines 3. B lines 4. Consolidation 5. [...]
For lung and pleural ultrasound the abundance of acoustic windows can be overwhelming. Our approach here at Western (based on the literature, including the Blue Protocol) is a 4 point assessment of each hemithorax. For more see this new tutorial created by Rob Arntfield.
Dr. Behzad Hassani has authored the excellent tutorial below to guide you in the interpretation and gradation of hydronephrosis for point of care ultrasound assessment of the kidney. Determining the presence or absence of hydro on renal sonography, particularly in the ED, may help you risk stratify patients with potential renal calculi and can rapidly narrow your differential diagnosis in patients with new renal failure [...]
We are pleased to launch a new educational resource in the form of this interactive learning module on the fundamentals of point of care ultrasound. This module is appropriate for anyone new to the topic of point of care ultrasound, and we are hopeful it proves to be a solid foundation for further learning and hands-on training. In addition to providing an overview of [...]
The point of care ultrasound revolution has brought a renaissance to providers of resuscitative care: No longer is determination of shock something that requires invasive monitoring (e.g. Swan Ganz) or an ICU admission. Instead, with good image acquisition and image interpretation skills, point of care echo can answer this question anywhere in the hospital - the ED, the ward, the ICU and, the CT scanner [...]
See the below tutorial on how to clear the hard drive of the Sonosite machines found in our hospital. A full hard drive can get in the way of your archiving and even slow down machine function. It is easy to do, just watch! [wpvideo Xi7pHCIf]
It is commonly asked how to get home access to Qpath. Here's how: 1. You must first have home access to the LHSC "VPN" via Juniper. (If you don't have this, it is not hard to get but you must first login to https://lh01.lhsc.on.ca from a WORK computer and go through the setup.) 2. Access the start page where you should be greeted by the [...]
Sterile Technique for US Guided Central Line Dr Jeff Granton (Critical Care/Anesthesia) demonstrates the technique and pointers on becoming maximally sterile for an invasive procedure (such as an ultrasound guided central venous catheter insertion):
As you become familiar with Qpath and how to archive your clips you will want to be sure you are capturing good quality clips for review. This document reviews our ED point of care ultrasound program's recommended standards.