BACKGROUND: Many people will present with respiratory distress to an emergency department (ED), and developing rapid identification of the etiology associated with this potentially life-threatening condition is critical. Traditional diagnostic modalities, such as a chest X-ray and/or computed tomography scan, may require considerable time and resources and may not always be possible in a patient who is critically ill. Emergency Ultrasound (EUS) has the potential to provide immediate, point-of-care, and radiation-free diagnostic information. To improve EUS skills and enhance the accuracy of EUS, the BRIPPED scan has been created as a multidimensional ultrasound algorithm that can assess various causes of respiratory distress; however, research on the clinical effectiveness and diagnostic accuracy of BRIPPED scans is limited. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective observational analytical study was undertaken at the ED of Vinayaka Mission's Kirupananda Variyar Medical College and Hospital, located in Salem, India. A total of 40 adult patients whose principal symptom was respiratory distress were recruited over a period of 6 months using convenience sampling methods. Written informed consent was obtained from all participating patients after the study received approval from the local ethics board. Bedside BRIPPED scans were performed by trained emergency physicians within the context of routine care and did not interfere with the usual management of the patient. When the BRIPPED scan was completed, the physician recorded a provisional diagnosis based on ultrasound results and compared this to a final diagnosis made by the treating physician after completing all standard imaging studies and laboratory tests. All data collected in this study were statistically analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics Version 27.0 software. To determine statistical significance, a P < 0.05 was used as the threshold for significance. RESULTS: The BRIPPED scan matched well with the final clinical diagnosis for common causes of respiratory distress, including cardiogenic, pulmonary, and thromboembolic causes. The use of the BRIPPED scan provided early classification of respiratory distress and supported rapid clinical decision-making in the ED. CONCLUSION: In the ED, the BRIPPED scan serves as an appropriate diagnostic tool that offers effective detection of a variety of respiratory distress and provides clinically useful data. The rapid, thorough assessments of the BRIPPED scan allow for improved management of patients who are suffering from respiratory distress due to the expeditious process of the assessment when time is critical and with limited resources.
Balakrishnan et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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