Etiologic diagnosis of acute shortness of breath in the emergency department

Abstract

Background-Dyspnea is the term applied to sensation of breathlessness and the patient’s reaction to that sensation, In the BLUE (Bedside Lung Ultrasound in Emergency) protocol, lung profiles have been designed for the main etiologies of dyspnea (acute pulmonary edema, COPD, pulmonary embolism, pneumothorax, pneumonia) with an accuracy of >90%. Objectives-•To investigate if BLUE protocol will improve diagnostic accuracy of patients with acute dyspnea •To compare the diagnostic accuracy of BLUE protocol findings alone with final diagnosis in patients with acute dyspnea. Methods-This study was a cross-sectional, hospital-based, follow-up observational study conducted in 130 patients who presented to the Emergency Department of Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences, Tiruvalla, Kerala during January 2020 to August 2020, with complains of dyspnea of acute onset. It was done by incorporating the Bedside Lung Ultrasound in Emergency (BLUE) protocol for diagnosing the etiology of dyspnea. Epiinfo 7 was used for analysis. Results-the study sample included 130 subjects who fulfilled the inclusion criteria.Amongthestudypopulation,76(58.5%)weremalesand54(41.5%) were females. The mean age of the study population was 66.6 with a standard deviation of 14.1. The minimum age included in the study was 32 years and the maximum age was 91years.