Increased body mass index is associated with decreased imaging quality of point-of-care abdominal aortic ultrasonography.

Background: Given that abdominal aorta is a retroperitoneal structure, increased body mass index (BMI) may have an adverse effect upon the quality of aortic ultrasonographic imaging.

Purpose: To assess the hypothesis that increased BMI is associated with worsening point-of-care abdominal aortic ultrasonographic image quality.

Methods: This is a retrospective single-center study of point-of-care abdominal aortic ultrasound examinations performed in an academic emergency department (ED) with fellowship-trained emergency ultrasonography faculty performing quality assurance review.

Increased body mass index does not impact the imaging quality of focused assessment with sonography in trauma.

Background: Many clinicians believe that a patient's body mass index (BMI) affects the likelihood of obtaining high quality ultrasound images.

Objectives: To assess the hypothesis that increased BMI is associated with worsening focused assessment with sonography in trauma (FAST) image quality.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective single-center study of FAST examinations performed in a large academic emergency department (ED) with fellowship-trained emergency ultrasonography faculty performing quality assurance review.