Use of Lung Ultrasound Instead of CT Chest in Follow up of Patients with Covid-19 in ICU

Authors

Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim Elshafey, M.B.B.ChFollow
Imam Abd El-kader El-sherief, Professor of Chest Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Al- Azhar University, Cairo
Emad Hamdi Tayel, Lecturer of Chest Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo

Document Type

Original Article

Abstract

Background: The new Coronavirus (Covid-19) struck the central area of China in late December 2019 and quickly spread to several nations across the world. This virus's pandemic breakout, with fast human-to-human transmission, has caused significant devastation in many parts of life as well as a significant loss of human material and financial resources.

Aim of The work: The purpose of this study is to assess the use of lung ultrasonography instead of CT chest in the ICU follow-up of patients with Covid-19.

Patient and method: From February 2022 to May 2023, 50 patients were hospitalized in the intensive care unit for the isolated critically ill (COVID-19) at Al-Hussein University Hospital.

Results: Most of our included patients had LUSI 2 and 3 at admission 32% and 34% while patients with LUSI 4 and 5 in the 1st and 2nd weeks were 28% and 22% respectively. On the other hand, patients had LUSI 2 and 3 in the 3rd week 28% and 20% respectively, while most of our included patients had LUSI 2 in the 4th week 24%. Regarding the relation between LUSI and CORAD among the studied group, it was found that at admission CORAD score was statistically significantly higher than LUSI score. Our results indicated that among surviving patients 35% of them had CORAD grade 4 at admission 42.5% of them had LUSI 3 at admission and 30% had LUSI 2 at discharge. Among non-survived patients, all of them have CORAD grade 5 at admission, 1 of them 10% have LUSI 4 at admission and the remaining 9 have LUSI 5 at admission. All of them had LUSI 5 at the time of death.

Conclusion: Lung ultrasonography is a simple technology that has a short learning curve and was frequently employed during the Covid-19 epidemic. Its importance was reinforced during the latter two years of the pandemic because of its accuracy in early diagnosis, triage, and monitoring of pneumonia development and sickness severity. There was also a strong relationship between chest CT and LUS score.

Keywords

Lung Ultrasound; Follow up; COVID-19.

Subject Area

Chest

How to Cite This Article

Elshafey, Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim; El-sherief, Imam Abd El-kader; and Tayel, Emad Hamdi (2023) "Use of Lung Ultrasound Instead of CT Chest in Follow up of Patients with Covid-19 in ICU," Al-Azhar International Medical Journal: Vol. 4: Iss. 11, Article 14.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58675/2682-339X.2108