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.

Ultrasound evaluation of appendicitis: importance of the 3 × 2 table for outcome reporting.

Introduction: Despite a relatively high frequency of appendix nonvisualization when using ultrasound to diagnose appendicitis, many studies either fail to report these results or inconsistently analyze outcomes.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to determine the most transparent and accurate way of reporting and analyzing ultrasound results for the diagnosis of appendicitis.

Methods: This was an observational cohort study of emergency department patients age 18 years or older who underwent right lower quadrant ultrasonography from September 2010 to October 2011.