Point-of-care chest ultrasound to diagnose acute heart failure in emergency department patients with acute dyspnea: diagnostic performance of an ultrasound-based algorithm

Background and objective.

Cardiopulmonary ultrasound imaging can be useful for diagnosing acute heart failure (AHF). We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of an algorithm based on point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in patients coming to the emergency department with acute dyspnea.

Methods.

Prospective analysis of a convenience sample of patients with acute dyspnea in 2 hospital emergency departments. The POCUS algorithm included lung ultrasound findings and 3 echocardiographic measurements taken from an apical view of 4 chambers: mitral annular plane systolic excursion, Doppler mitral flow velocity, and tissue Doppler imaging of the lateral mitral annulus. The definitive diagnosis was made by 2 physicians blinded to the POCUS findings.

Results.

A total of 103 adult patients with a mean (SD) age of 73 (12) years were included; about half (51 patients) were women. Forty-two patients (41%) were finally diagnosed with AHF. Interindividual agreement on the physicians’ diagnoses was good (k = 0.82). The POCUS algorithm assigned an AHF diagnosis to 76 patients (74%); 56 of them (85%) were in sinus rhythm. The diagnostic performance indicators for the algorithm were as follows: area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.94 (95% CI, 0.88–1.00); sensitivity 96% (95% CI, 78%–100%); specificity, 93% (95% CI, 8%–98%); positive predictive value, 85% (95% CI, 67%–100%); negative predictive value, 98% (95% CI, 88%–100%).

Conclusion. The POCUS-based algorithm for diagnosing AHF performed well in patients coming to the emergency department with acute dyspnea.