Objective To Assess the efficacy of using lung ultrasound to guide alveolar recruitment maneuver in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Methods Sixty patients with ARDS were randomly divided into two groups, ie, maximal oxygenation group (n=30) and lung ultrasound group (n=30). All the patients had artificial airway and needed mechanical ventilation. The patients in the two groups accepted recruitment maneuver guided by maximal oxygenation or lung ultrasound respectively. During the course of recruitment maneuver, the arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2), positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP), central venous pressure (CVP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), cardiac output (CO), and extravascular lung water index (EVLWI) were recorded and compared between both groups. Results The PaO2 in lung ultrasound group was higher than that in maximal oxygenation group (P=0.04). The PEEP was higher in lung ultrasound group but without significant difference (P=0.910). There was no significant difference of the other outcomes (CVP, MAP, CO, EVLWI) between the two groups (all P>0.05). Conclusion Lung ultrasound is an effective means that has good repeatability and security for guiding recruitment maneuver in patients with ARDS.
In recent years, with the development of ultrasound technology, pulmonary ultrasound is more and more used in the evaluation of patients with heart failure. B-lines are defined as reverberation artifacts starting from the pleural line and extending to the bottom of the screen without disappearing, and moving synchronously with pleural sliding, which are proportional to extravascular lung water in congestive heart failure (CHF). B-lines have the characteristics of no attenuation and synchronous movement with pleural sliding. Pulmonary ultrasound mainly record the numbers and widths of B-lines in the areas when assessing the severity of CHF, which have the characteristics of effectivity, non-invasiveness, instantaneousness, and good repeatability. Currently, there are 4-, 8-, 12-, and 28-subdivision methods for the evaluation of CHF in the pulmonary ultrasound subdivision method. The more subdivisions are, the longer the operation time will be, and the sensitivity and specificity will be different. How to choose a subdivision method is still controversial in clinical practice. Lung ultrasound could be used alone or combined with brain natriuretic peptide, echocardiography, chest X-ray, chest CT scan, etc. in the early diagnosis, assessment of disease severity, evaluation of efficacy, and assessment of prognosis of CHF, with different advantages and disadvantages. This article reviews the application and progress of pulmonary ultrasound in CHF.