Intensive care nurse-led point of care ultrasound in the assessment and management of the critically ill COVID-19 patient: A single centre case series

Focused ultrasound can be used to rapidly diagnose COVID-19 disease, assess disease severity, and inform management of COVID-19 and associated pathologies, reducing radiation exposure from other imaging modalities and minimizing spread of infection. Ultrasound examinations performed by trained nurses in the intensive care unit (ICU) enable more patients to receive these assessments. This case series evaluates the use of nurse-led focused cardiac and lung ultrasound for clinical management of ICU patients with COVID-19. We describe common pathophysiological findings and how findings were used to inform clinical decision-making. An ultrasound trained ICU nurse performed Focused Ultrasound in Intensive Care (FUSIC) cardiac and lung scans enabling calculation of a lung severity score on adult ICU patients with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis in a single-centre setting. Fifteen scans were performed on 15 patients. Thirteen (87%) patients had normal left ventricular function; 12 (80%) normal right ventricular function. All 15 (100%) scans identified abnormal lung findings including irregular thickened pleura, B-lines, sub-pleural consolidation and hepatization. Worse lung severity scores were correlated with higher Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II) scores (r = 0.70; p = .003). Of the 15 scans, 10 (67%) identified abnormal pathology contributing to a change in clinical management. This included targeted fluid removal (4, 27%), change in respiratory management (3, 20%) and need for formal echocardiographic assessment (3, 20%). Findings from five (33%) scans required no intervention. This case series demonstrates nurse-led ultrasound could be a useful adjunct in the management of the COVID-19 patient.