Renal and Genitourinary Ultrasound Evaluation in Emergency and Critical Care: An Overview.

Renal and genitourinary ultrasound are fundamental resources employed by emergency and critical care healthcare providers to make prompt diagnoses and perform ultrasound-guided procedures. At the bedside, ultrasound can aid in the diagnosis of relevant pathologies, such as post-renal obstruction or kidney stones, and life-threatening conditions such as aortic dissection or hemoperitoneum. A narrative overview was performed, providing an updated review of renal and genitourinary ultrasound for emergency and critical care healthcare providers, emphasizing its advantages and the latest advances in the field. A thorough summary that can be utilized as a guide for emergency and critical care healthcare providers is presented. The daily hemodynamic management of critically ill patients involves the implementation of new protocols, such as VexUS or the evaluation of the renal resistance index. The role of ultrasound in managing acute nephropathy and genitourinary issues is increasingly crucial given its bedside availability, thus this imaging modality not only facilitates the initiation of therapeutic interventions but also provides swift prognostic insights that are vital to provide tailored patient care. As further advances in ultrasound will arise, it is important for healthcare providers to foster the use of these technologies capable of improving patient outcomes.

Procalcitonin in early rule-in/rule-out of sepsis in SIRS patients admitted to a medical ward.

BACKGROUND: A relevant amount of patients with clinical suspect of sepsis is admitted and treated in medical wards (MW). These patients have a better prognosis but are older and with more comorbidities compared to those admitted to intensive care units (ICU). Procalcitonin (PCT) is extensively used in emergency departments for the diagnosis of sepsis, but its accuracy in the setting of a MW has not been thoroughly investigated. Predicted low PCT levels also call for the comparison of immunomagnetic-chemiluminescent (L-PCT) and time-resolved amplified cryptate emission (TRACE, K-PCT) technologies, in PCT determination. METHODS: In 80 patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) diagnostic criteria and suspect of sepsis newly admitted to a MW, PCT was determined with L- and K-PCT method. RESULTS: Sixty patients were diagnosed as sepsis (20 microbiologically and 40 clinically proven) and 20 with non-infective SIRS. The sepsis group had significantly higher levels of both PCTs, with no differences between the clinically and microbiologically proven subgroups. The areas under ROC curves for L- and K-PCT were 0.72 and 0.78 (p<0.001 for each), respectively. Based on MW customized cut-off values of 0.150 (L-PCT) and 0.143 ng/mL (K-PCT), overall accuracies were 66.8 (95% CI 58.7-78.9) and 78.2% (69.8-87.2), respectively, compared to the 55% (44.2-66) of 0.5 ng/mL canonical cut-off. Neither PCT-L nor -K held prognostic value on survival. CONCLUSIONS: In MW patients, customized PCT cut-off levels provide better accuracy than customary levels adopted from ICU, and TRACE technology seems to offer a wider analysis range.