Efficacy of a short course of lung ultrasound for primary care physicians in the assessment of COVID-19-positive patients.

INTRODUCTION: Lung ultrasound (LUS) has become the first diagnostic imaging approach to assess lung involvement in COVID-19. While LUS proved to be safe, reliable, and accurate, not many primary care physicians (PCP) are capable to employ this instrument in the first evaluation of COVID-19 outpatients. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a brief training program in LUS for PCP. METHODS: Italian local authorities promoted a training program in LUS for PCP engaged in COVID-19 outpatients' evaluation. The course took place in a COVID-19 unit and included a hands-on practice on real COVID-19 patients. We conducted a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results of the training program. RESULTS: A total of 32 PCP completed the training. About 100% of participants reported an increase in competence and confidence in the use of LUS after the training. Self-reported confidence in detecting major COVID-19 LUS abnormalities was high (B-lines 8/10, pleural abnormalities 6.5/10). B-lines were accurately identified with a reliability of 81%, with a sensitivity of 96%, and a negative predictive value of 98%. Trainees were some less accurate in detecting pleural abnormalities (reliability 63%) but with a high specificity (99%). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that a short training program, but comprising a hands-on practice, is capable to bring even almost novices to achieve a high overall accuracy and reliability in detecting lung involvement in COVID-19. This may result in a significant improvement of the performances of PCP involved in the first evaluation of COVID-19 cases in primary care facilities.

Very Low Alcohol Consumption Is Associated with Lower Prevalence of Cirrhosis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

The role of moderate alcohol consumption in the evolution of NAFLD is still debated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of current and lifelong alcohol consumption in patients with NAFLD. From 2015 to 2020, we enrolled 276 consecutive patients fulfilling criteria of NAFLD (alcohol consumption up to 140 g/week for women and 210 g/week for men). According to their current alcohol intake per week, patients were divided in: abstainers, very low consumers (C1: <70 g/week) and moderate consumers (C2). We created a new tool, called LACU (Lifetime Alcohol Consuming Unit) to estimate the alcohol exposure across lifetime: 1 LACU was defined as 7 alcohol units per week for 1 drinking year. Patients were divided into lifelong abstainers and consumers and the latter furtherly divided into quartiles: Q1-Q4. Stratification according to alcohol intake, both current and cumulative as estimated by LACU, showed that very low consumers (C1 and Q1-Q3) displayed lower frequency of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma compared to abstainers and moderate consumers (C2 and Q4). We can speculate that up to one glass of wine daily in the context of a Mediterranean diet may be a long-term useful approach in selected NAFLD patients.

Lung Ultrasound Is Often, but Not Always, Normal in Healthy Subjects: Considerations for COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Lung ultrasound (LU) is becoming an increasingly important diagnostic tool in detecting lung involvement in Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The aim of this study was to ascertain the likelihood of finding LU abnormalities; mimicking lung involvement; in COVID-19 negative healthy individuals. METHODS: We performed LU on 265 healthcare workers; not presenting COVID-19 major symptoms and in good health; during the course of a serological screening program for COVID-19 in our General Hospital. LU results were reported as total Lung Ultrasound Score (LUS) using a 12-zone method of reporting. RESULTS: 250/265 subjects were included in the COVID-19 negative group. LU was not completely normal (LUS ≠ 0) in 65/250 COVID-19 negative subjects (26%) and in 12/15 (80%) poorly symptomatic COVID-19 positive subjects; with a multifocal pattern in 12.7% vs. 66.7% of cases respectively. Age and COVID-19 positivity were independent predictors of total LUS. A total LUS ≥ 2 had a sensitivity of 66.67% and a specificity of 85.60% in detecting COVID-19 positivity. CONCLUSIONS: A slightly altered LU can be quite frequent in healthy COVID-19 negative subjects. LU can have a role in confirming but not screening COVID-19 poorly symptomatic cases.

Pancreatic ultrasound elastography is not useful to predict the risk of pancreatic fistulas after pancreatic resection.

The clinical usefulness of pancreatic elastography (PE) in the assessment of the pancreatic texture before pancreatic resection still remains uncertain. The aims are: to evaluate the value of pancreatic stiffness in both healthy volunteers and patients affected by pancreatic tumor; to evaluate the ability of PE in predicting clinically relevant postoperative pancreatic fistula (CR-POPF). Pancreatic stiffness of healthy subjects was compared with those of pancreatic tumors measuring shear wave velocity (SWV). In the last group, the ability of preoperative SWV in predicting CR-POPF was evaluated using linear regression. Ninety subjects were consecutively enrolled. No difference was found in SWV in the two groups (1.33 ± 0.31 vs 1.26 ± 0.30, p = 0.337). Multivariate analyses showed that male gender was associated with a softer pancreas (OR 0.74, CI 0.55-0.98, p = 0.035). In the 45 patients suitable for a secondary endpoint, the presence of soft pancreas assessed by surgeon's palpation (OR 61.21; CI 2.14- > 1000; p = 0.016) and preoperative risk score (OR 1.72; CI 1.01-2.96; p = 0.049) was predictors of CR-POPF. SWV showed a trend in predicting CR-POPF. The pancreatic stiffness far to the pancreatic neoplasm is the same as healthy controls. SWV showed a trend in predicting CR-POPF but the clinical utility is limited.

Imaging findings of hepatic epithelioid hemangioendothelioma and fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma: a critical appraisal of current literature about imaging features of two rare liver cancers.

Hepatic epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (HEHE) and fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are rare malignant neoplasms of the liver. Contrarily to HCC, no distinctive imaging criteria based on contrast enhancement pattern are known for these neoplasms, thus they are frequently misdiagnosed as other liver tumors. Due to their infrequency, very few data principally based on reports of few patients are currently available in literature. This results in several issues pending on the application of imaging in the diagnosis of these cancers, which absolutely needs pathological examination. Nevertheless, imaging techniques are fundamental in the diagnostic work-up and in the management of affected patient. This review summarizes the current evidence about imaging systems in the diagnosis of HEHE and fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC), discussing the significance of the principal iconographic hallmarks and the prospective potentials of the most employed techniques.