Bedside Ultrasound Identifies Congestive Heart Failure
Bedside Ultrasound Identifies Congestive Heart Failure
Patients often arrive to the Emergency Department with the chief complaint of shortness of
 breath. The cause of the shortness of breath may be due to many things, such as pneumonia,
 emphysema, a heart attack, heart failure, and others. It is often very difficult for the
 physician to determine the cause of the shortness of breath in the first two hours in the
 Emergency Department. This ambiguity makes treating the patient very difficult. Although a
 patient could benefit from treatment upon arrival, the emergent treatment of the condition
 must wait until a final diagnosis is made.

 Recently, emergency physicians have been using portable ultrasound at the patient's bedside
 to diagnose numerous conditions, including trauma, blood clots, kidney stones, etc. Recent
 research suggests that heart failure, one of the causes of shortness of breath, may be
 diagnosed within 5 minutes or less using ultrasound. Most of these studies come from the
 intensive care and cardiology. However, no research has yet been performed to determine if
 emergency physicians can effectively use ultrasound to quickly diagnose and treat heart
 failure within the first few minutes of a patient's arrival to the emergency department. The
 hypothesis of this study is to evaluate the ability of residents in emergency medicine to use
 ultrasound to diagnose patients in heart failure who presented with the chief complaint of
 shortness of breath. The final diagnosis of the patient upon discharge from the hospital will
 be compared to the preliminary diagnosis based on the portable ultrasound findings.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  age > 18

 -  presenting complaint of shortness of breath or dyspnea

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  prisoners

 -  pregnant women

 -  shortness of breath clearly secondary to another diagnosis (i.e. trauma)