Bedside ocular ultrasound in the emergency department.

The use of point-of-care ultrasound in the emergency department has expanded considerably in recent years, allowing enhanced evaluation of the patient with an emergent eye or vision complaint. The technique is simple and quick to perform, and can yield clinical information that may not be readily obtainable through physical or slit-lamp exams. Ocular bedside sonography can aid in the diagnosis of retinal and vitreous hemorrhage, retinal and vitreous detachments, ocular infections, foreign bodies, retrobulbar hematoma, or ocular vascular pathology. Optic nerve sheath diameter can be measured in patients with a suspected intracranial process as a surrogate for intracranial pressure, and may aid emergency diagnosis and management. This article reviews common emergency ophthalmic pathologies diagnosed with ultrasound in the emergency setting and a mnemonic for the use of bedside ocular ultrasound is proposed to aid in thoroughly scanning the eye and its surrounding structures.

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: echocardiographic VALVE protocol for emergency physicians.

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, previously called diastolic heart failure, has been recognized to account for heart failure in about half the total population of patients with heart failure. These patients can present with the signs and symptoms of acute heart failure. The emergency physician evaluating a patient for acute heart failure may find normal qualitative left ventricular systolic function on focused bedside echocardiogram and prematurely abandon heart failure as a differential diagnosis, when in fact signs of diastolic dysfunction could have been found on additional echo evaluation. This article discusses basic echocardiographic principles of diastolic dysfunction that can be learned and implemented in the emergency department. These findings can aid in the recognition of patients who present with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. The authors will discuss a focused stepwise approach, namely the VALVE protocol, suitable for the fast-paced emergency department.