Ultrasound imaging of the femoral and saphenous nerves.

Introduction: Iatrogenic and traumatic injuries to the femoral and saphenous nerves, and their branches are uncommon but can be a cause of clinically pertinent lower limb dysfunction and neuralgia. Despite this, direct sonographic imaging of these nerves is not commonly requested or performed.

Methods: A review of the literature regarding the detailed relative anatomy, sonographic technique to image these nerves and their branches and their normal and abnormal appearances was conducted.

Ultrasound assessment of acute Achilles tendon rupture and measurement of the tendon gap.

Achilles tendon rupture is a common sports-related injury which can carry significant morbidity to patients. Ultrasound remains the workhorse of imaging as it can confirm and localise the extent of Achilles tendon injury. The sonographic anatomy, both normal and ruptured sonographic appearances, as well as sonographic technique must be appreciated to accurately image and report findings, critical to patient management.

Lung ultrasound in heart failure: Lessons from re-analysis of Lung Ultrasound 2011 database.

: In the setting of patients presenting with shortness of breath to an Emergency Department a simple lung ultrasound protocol aimed at detecting pulmonary oedema has been shown to have diagnostic accuracy of 85%. This article reviews data from the original study, in an attempt to determine whether adjusting the protocol and/or interpretive criteria would improve results. : A large lung ultrasound project provided the dataset.

Comparison of a basic lung scanning protocol against formally reported chest x-ray in the diagnosis of pulmonary oedema.

: Brief lung scan protocols have been recommended as a useful adjunct to identify pulmonary oedema in the breathless elderly patient. Some papers quote diagnostic accuracies above that of chest x-ray. : We recruited a prospective convenience sample of patients over sixty years of age reporting any breathlessness on presentation to the emergency department.

Diagnostic accuracy of basic lung ultrasound in breathless patients over 60 years of age; stressing the protocol.

: Emergency department differentiation of pulmonary oedema from chronic obstructive airways disease causing acute breathlessness is inaccurate 25% of the time despite clinical acumen, clinician-reported chest x-ray and ECG. This research investigates whether a basic lung ultrasound protocol (LUS) could improve identification of pulmonary oedema in breathless elderly patients. : Researchers prospectively sampled patients over 60 years, describing any breathlessness on presentation to a suburban emergency department.

Limited lung ultrasound protocol in elderly patients with breathlessness; agreement between bedside interpretation and stored images as acquired by experienced and inexperienced sonologists.

: Bedside lung ultrasound is increasingly performed in the Emergency Department to assess dyspnoeic patients. Quantifying the number of B-lines (a vertical short path reverberation artefact caused by the presence of interstitial fluid) can help clinicians differentiate 'wet lung' - pulmonary oedema, from 'dry lung' - not pulmonary oedema. The aim of this study was to determine inter-rater agreement for this simple bedside investigation, comparing relative ultrasound novices with more experienced personnel.