Ultrasound Podcast

This week we hear the podcast Rachel Liu and Jacob recorded at ACEP 2019 to discuss external certification for POCUS as well as how POCUS fellowships will be accredited in the future (Recorded live in the podcasting booth at ACEP 2019 in Denver, Co!)If you want a bigger summary, subscribe to our newsletter HERE.  Learn live: Bendfest20.com and CastleFest2020.com Looking for an extended fellowship? Look no further: ULA

This week we show you the caliber of lecture we have at our yearly Castlefest conference. In this video, Peter Weimersheimer walks us through his best tips and tricks for ultrasound-guided vascular access.If you want to learn more about Castlefest 2020, check out the website: www.castlefest2020.com.  If you want to learn about our online fellowship, Ultrasound Leadership Academy, Click here: http://ultrasoundleadershipacademy.com/academy/ or the all-new Mini fellowship at https://www.ulamini.com/

This week, Russ Horowitz (PEM physician extraordinaire) talks to us about his approach to the diagnosis of pediatric pneumonia with ultrasound.  We talk about how ultrasound compares to the physical exam, how to use this to help include the parents in the care of their children, how to actually perform the exam, and how to use your ultrasound even if the culture in your hospital is to get XR. Here are the references Russ is referring to in the podcast: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28835381https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29931473https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25780071 Learn live: Bendfest20.com and CastleFest2020.com Looking for an extended fellowship? Look no further: ULA

M-mode (Motion Mode) is another way the ultrasound machine interprets the sonographic data it receives.  There are multiple applications of M-mode, but one application we should definitely NOT use M-mode is in the evaluation of IVC collapse Check out the podcast for more info! Learn live: Bendfest20.com and CastleFest2020.com Looking for an extended fellowship? Look no further: ULA

Recently, Dr. Ben Smith showed me this article, entitled “A Doppler Echocardiographic Pulmonary Flow Marker of Massive or Submassive Acute Pulmonary Embolus”.  It talks some pretty interesting stuff, including showing us a finding that apparently, might be better than all the other echocardiographic findings we have for ruling in and ruling out submissive and massive PE.  It’s called Early Systolic Notching, and it outperformed McConnell’s, the 60/60 sign, and acceleration/deceleration times.  Check out the graphic (produced by Ben Smith) and the podcast, which was cross posted on the Ultrasound GEL podcast earlier this week. Registration for Castlefest 2020, our ultrasound conference in Lexington Ky, IS LIVE! Click here to learn more!  Interested in an online ultrasound fellowship?  Click here to find out more. 

I had the opportunity to hang out with Cian McDermott in Dublin for a conference on one of my favorite topics: Venous thromboembolism.  This week, we discuss some salient VTE topics as well as our thoughts on ultrasound-guided nerve blocks.   Registration for Castlefest 2020, our ultrasound conference in Lexington Ky, is live! Click the following link to learn more.  Interested in an online ultrasound fellowship?  Click here to find out more. 

There is a fair bit of literature out there that touches on the sonographic diagnosis of heart failure in the ED.  Recently I was fortunate enough to speak with Michael Prats regarding our approaches to CHF and Ultrasound. CASTLEFEST 2020 registration is live!  Ultrasound with national experts in beautiful Lexington, Ky.  Check out the website here:  https://www.castlefest2020.com/ Interested in an online ultrasound fellowship?  Check out the Ultrasound Leadership Academy!

The RUSH exam has been around for at least 13 years, and it’s time for a review from one of the innovators who first coined the phrase “Rapid Ultrasound in Shock and Hypotension”.  Scott has the perspective of a resuscitationist who uses ultrasound, and needs this exam to be as efficient as possible. Listen to the podcast to hear his thoughts. Caution: If you’re listening with children, this episode has a bit of strong language. *A couple of clarifications: During the podcast I mentioned that I’ve done a bunch of research on DVT. I’ve done absolutely no clinical or laboratory research on DVT’s, but I’ve definitely read a bunch of articles. Also, during the podcast I mentioned a systematic review/meta-analysis that shows that when a DVT is found in a patient in whom there is suspicion of PE, the +LR was 16.2.  Here’s the pubmed ID: 16052017).  Also, if you’re unfamiliar of the LLS score, check out this link. Interested in an online ultrasound fellowship?  Check out the Ultrasound Leadership Academy!

What we do matters.  Our bedside ultrasound often changes management and saves lives. So why are we calling our scans “informal”? We might not always say that outright, but I frequently hear our residents and staff call a radiology or cardiology performed ultrasound a “formal” scan, implying that what we do is informal.  I have nothing but respect for the vast knowledge and experience that our consultant colleagues bring to the table, but what we do is also “formal”, albeit its usually a limited exam compared to the comprehensive scans they do. While pondering on this, I decided that I might be able to convince people that what I do at the bedside is formal….by performing ultrasounds whilst wearing the most formal attire I could buy off of Amazon.  I was fortunate enough to be joined by Nik Theyyunni, Rob Huang and Creagh Boulger at GLUC (Great Lakes Ultrasound Consortium) a few months ago in Cincinnati, and they were nice enough to sit down with me and record our thoughts. You can definitely hear the audio podcast, but make sure to check out the Youtube page to see us in our whole get-up.  Interested in an online ultrasound fellowship? Check out the Ultrasound Leadership Academy!Interested in an in-person fellowship, check out the University of Kentucky’s Ultrasound Fellowship!

Over the past year there has been a small bit of controversy regarding the best way to make sure that we aren’t causing iatrogenic infections when placing ultrasound-guided IV’s. To be honest, I took it for granted that tegaderms should be used when we do this potentially life-saving procedure.  Recent posts from ALiEM and EMRAP made me question the utility of these adhesive barriers.  After much research, it turns out that tegaderms are probably perfectly fine to use.  In this podcast, Dallas Holladay, Michael Gottlieb and I sit down to talk about our interpretation of the literature behind using tegaderms for ultrasound-guided IV’s.  Check it out! If you’re interested in an online ultrasound fellowship, check out the Ultrasound Leadership Academy

While preparing for a recent grand rounds lecture, I uncovered something rather interesting: The fact that the RV can enlarge during cardiac arrest independently of the presence of a pulmonary embolism. It turns out that the data showing RV enlargement as a marker of a pulmonary embolism is actually mostly extrapolated from alive patients (in which it has been shown to be a pretty good marker of submassive and massive PE).  There is very minimal data on RV enlargement in arrest in humans, but there are some animal studies that suggest that the RV enlarges in many causes of arrest, including hypoxia and arrhythmias.  Check out the podcast, and the summary of the literature on the PDF below:

The last day of Bendfest 2019 was bittersweet.  I was a phenomenal day of education, idea exchanges and friendship, but also it was the last day.  In this summary, I sit down with Justin Cook to talk about his top tips for being a master of the ultrasound-guided vascular access, and I give you a sneak peek of Patrick Ockerse’s phenomenal talk on ultrasound in cardiac arrest. Check it out! Check out our other ventures:  www.ultrasoundleadershipacademy.com – Online ultrasound fellowship www.5minsono.com – Short videos on how to perform exams www.ultrasoundGEL.org – Audio ultrasound journal club  www.ultrasoundoftheweek.com/tools – If you want to learn to create content, definitely check this out. 

Day 2 of Bendfest 2019 is drifting further in the past, but that doesn’t mean we can’t relive it! In this interview summary, Jacob sits down with Creagh Boulger and Jenn Cotton and they talk about ultrasound in shock and pregnancy.  Here are the salient points:  Creagh Boulger (Ultrasound in Shock) Mnemonics can be helpful, but not every patient needs the same exam every time.   First step for Dr. Boulger: Is it the pump (cardiac contractility) and/or is it the pipes (Preload)? Other things can cause shock that aren’t in the typical hypotensive algorithm (Gallbladder, Soft tissue, etc) Jenn Cotton (Pregnancy) Don’t get tricked by the hCG! You can have ruptured ectopics at hCG = 0. Additionally, viable pregnancies with hCG levels above the “discriminatory zone” and not visualized on US can still be viable Our job is to RULE IN uterine pregnancies, not RULE OUT ectopics.  Fertility treatments increase risk of heterotopic ultrasounds Don’t be scared of performing a transvaginal ultrasound.  Day 3’s summary will be out soon!If you’re interested in an online ultrasound fellowship, check out www.ultrasoundleadershipacademy.com

Dr. Chris Fox is one of the trailblazers in integrating ultrasound into medical school education. This week, I got the opportunity to interview him and hear a bit of his story, get some tips and talk about the 7th Annual World Congress of Ultrasound in Medical Education.  If you want to see a video of the interview, check out our youtube page! Interested in an online ultrasound fellowship?  Check out ultrasoundleadershipacademy.com

A few weeks ago we had a wonderful time in Bend, Oregon during Bendfest 2019.  We got some mountain biking in, some hiking in, some river floating in and ate some great food!  We wanted to share the choicest pearls from our phenomenal lecturers on some of the topics they covered.  Check out the summary of day 1! Peter Weimersheimer (Cardiac): Find the beating thing first. Use lots of gel, and lot of pressure to get your view. Get your ultrasound beam parallel with the heart. Start your exam with your patient in the left lateral decubitus position. Do one maneuver at a time (rotate, fan, rock, etc). Start with the probe at the clavicle/sternal interface, slide down until you see the heart. You don’t always need all the 4 views of the heart. If ventricle is round, subtle hand rotations will fix. #1 point – Just use bedside echo. Ben Smith (Aorta, renal) If you think you see mild hydro, use color flow to differentiate between mild hydro and prominent renal vessels Scan from the back; the ribs are farther away from each other back there so may get better windows. We aren’t good at finding the actual ureteral stone, but were pretty good at hydro For getting past bowel gas when looking at the aorta – start up high where there is less gas (epigastric). Then when you come up on gas, use other hand to apply steady pressure (often 30-60 seconds). Use curvilinear probe, hurts less than the phased array. Transhepatic view of aorta – not bad for aneurysm, but not great for dissection We are good at looking at the aorta as long as we can actually see the aorta. Research that show great accuracy of bedside sonographic aorta exam only included studies where the aorta... Read More