ArticleThe ultrasound journal2021
Diagnostic accuracy of lung ultrasound for SARS-CoV-2: a retrospective cohort study.
Article in The ultrasound journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Lung Ultrasound Score in COVID-19 Patients Correlates with POThe western journal of emergency medicine · 2024Pooled it
- The diagnostic performance of lung ultrasound for detecting COVID-19 in emergency departments: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of clinical ultrasound : JCU · 2022Pooled it
- Pre-existing interstitial lung disease in patients with coronavirus disease 2019: A meta-analysis.International immunopharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Pulmonary ultrasound in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 pneumonia in South Africa: An observational study.African journal of thoracic and critical care medicine · 2025Article
- Ten Questions on Using Lung Ultrasonography to Diagnose and Manage Pneumonia in the Hospital-at-Home Model: Part I-Techniques and Patterns.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- The Role of POCUS to Face COVID-19: A Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Review
- Can Dialysis Patients Identify and Diagnose Pulmonary Congestion Using Self-Lung Ultrasound?Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Ultrasound assessment of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia: a literature review for the primary care physician.Annals of medicine · 2022Review
- Volume sweep imaging lung teleultrasound for detection of COVID-19 in Peru: a multicentre pilot study.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Simplified Lung Ultrasound Examination and Telehealth Feasibility in Early SARS-CoV-2 Infection.Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography : official publication of the American Society of Echocardiography · 2022Article
- Speckled Tracking of Pleura-A Novel Tool for Lung Ultrasound; Distinguishing COVID-19 from Acute Heart Failure.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Outcomes of Simplified Lung Ultrasound Exam in COVID-19: Implications for Self-Imaging.Journal of ultrasound in medicine : official journal of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine · 2022Article
- Diagnostic Performance of Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests, Chest Computed Tomography, and Lung Point-of-Care-Ultrasonography for SARS-CoV-2 Compared with RT-PCR Testing: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Mini-COVIDNet: Efficient Lightweight Deep Neural Network for Ultrasound Based Point-of-Care Detection of COVID-19.IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAs medical infrastructures are strained by SARS-CoV-2, rapid and accurate screening tools are essential. In portions of the world, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing remains slow and in limited supply, and computed tomography is expensive, inefficient, and involves exposure to ionizing radiation. Multiple studies evaluating the efficiency of lung point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) have been published recently, but include relatively small cohorts and often focus on characteristics associated with severe illness rather than screening efficacy. This study utilizes a retrospective cohort to evaluate the test characteristics (sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, predictive values) of lung POCUS in the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, and to determine lung score cutoffs that maximize performance for use as a screening tool.
resultsLung POCUS examinations had sensitivity 86%, specificity 71.6%, NPV 81.7%, and PPV 77.7%. The Lung Ultrasound Score had an area under the curve of 0.84 (95% CI 0.78, 0.90). When including only complete examinations visualizing 12 lung fields, lung POCUS had sensitivity 90.9% and specificity 75.6%, with NPV 87.2% and PPV 82.0% and an area under the curve of 0.89 (95% CI 0.83, 0.96). Lung POCUS was less accurate in patients with a history of interstitial lung disease, severe emphysema, and heart failure.
conclusionsWhen applied in the appropriate patient population, lung POCUS is an inexpensive and reliable tool for rapid screening and diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 in symptomatic patients with influenza-like illness. Adoption of lung POCUS screening for SARS-CoV-2 may identify patients who do not require additional testing and reduce the need for RT-PCR testing in resource-limited environments and during surge periods.
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