Point-of-care Ultrasound in Prehospital Dyspnea

Point-of-care Ultrasound in Prehospital Dyspnea: Game-changer or Gaming-gadgets?

Point-of-care ultrasound in patients with dyspnoea has been shown to alter patient treatment and the time to correct treatment when performed in emergency departments. In Denmark, physician-staffed ambulances are sent to citizens with severe ABCD symptoms including dyspnoea. Hence, there is a potential for correct diagnostics and appropriate treatment already in the citizens' own home or en route to the hospital. This study aims to evaluate the clinical performance of prehospital point-of-care ultrasound in patients with dyspnoea.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Dyspnea
• Intervention / Treatment: Diagnostic test: Point-of-care ultrasound

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 219

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Denmark
  • Aarhus, Denmark
    • Præhospitalet

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

All citizens who have contacted the Acute Medical Coordination center in the Central Denmark Region for emergency medical treatment.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• age >/= 18 years
• dyspnea as a dominating complaint At least one of
• respiratory frequency >25/minute
• oxygen saturation < 95%
• oxygen therapy initiated

Exclusion Criteria:

• trama patients
• prior enrollment

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Sensitivity for diagnosing heart failure	Change in sensitivity for diagnosing heart failure when adding point-of-care ultrasound to the clinical examination	From initial citizen contact to end of ultrasound examination within 15 minutes

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Sensitivity, clinical exam	Sensitivity of clinical examination for for diagnosing heart failure. Held up against a post-hoc expert panel statement.	From initial citizen contact and within a time-span of 15 minutes
Sensitivity, Ultrasound examination	Sensitivity of clinical examination supplemented with ultrasound scan for diagnosing heart failure. Held up against a post-hoc expert panel statement.	From initial citizen contact and within a time-span of 15 minutes
Treatment changes in medicine caused by ultrasound examination	Changes in medical treatment including diuretics, nitric oxide, bronkodilation and steroids caused by the addition of an ultrasound scan	From initial citizen contact and within a time-span of 15 minutes
Treatment changes in ventilation caused by ultrasound examination	Treatment changes ventilatory strategy including nasal cannula oxygen therapi, face mask or non-invasive positive pressure ventilation caused by the addition of an ultrasound scan	From initial citizen contact and within a time-span of 15 minutes
Triage changes caused by ultrasound examination	Change in the department or hospital that the patient is sent to as a cause of an ultrasound scan	From initial citizen contact and within a time-span of 60 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Aarhus
• Collaborators: Randers Regional Hospital
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Morten Bøtker, MD, Phd, Prehospital of Central Denmark Region

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 15, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): December 30, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 21, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 3, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): April 5, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): November 2, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 1, 2022
• Last Verified: November 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Respiratory Tract Diseases; Respiration Disorders; Signs and Symptoms, Respiratory; Dyspnea
• Other Study ID Numbers: POC Ultrasound

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No