Ultrasound Troubleshooting

[Dwindlin]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Last night accepted a super sick patient in the SICU. Tried to take a look at her IVC and for the life of me could not get a clear picture. Unfortunately as I've mentioned bedside ultrasound is woefully lacking, so most of what I have managed to learn has been through selfstudy and talking with the ultrasound techs on the rare occasion I catch them free.

So, I was able to identify my landmarks, so I'm fairly sure I was looking in the right area, but I could never get a clear picture, it was so grain-y that I couldn't make anything out with any detail. Tried a couple of adjustments on the settings, but frankly I'm not all that comfortable with them. Which leads me to my question. Are there any decent resources for trouble shooting ultrasound images? How to make adjustments to improve picture quality?

Thanks all!

 

[europeman]

Ivc not the best thing for fluid assessment.... Especially in a Sicu where there are several limiting factors like bowel gas and bandages etc.

Learn goal directed echo of heart instead. If u can see ivc than fine... Bonus... But it's less important

 

[Hamhock]

Last night accepted a super sick patient in the SICU. Tried to take a look at her IVC and for the life of me could not get a clear picture. Unfortunately as I've mentioned bedside ultrasound is woefully lacking, so most of what I have managed to learn has been through selfstudy and talking with the ultrasound techs on the rare occasion I catch them free.

So, I was able to identify my landmarks, so I'm fairly sure I was looking in the right area, but I could never get a clear picture, it was so grain-y that I couldn't make anything out with any detail. Tried a couple of adjustments on the settings, but frankly I'm not all that comfortable with them. Which leads me to my question. Are there any decent resources for trouble shooting ultrasound images? How to make adjustments to improve picture quality?

Thanks all!

Where were you trying to get your images of the IVC from? Subxiphoid?

Try placing the "abdominal probe" (excuse me UTS purists -- I use the term for easier communication) in the "Morrison's" FAST position and identify the IVC through the liver...much easier that from an anterior position looking through bowel gas and such.

HH

 

[Bostonredsox]

I had a lot of trouble identifying IVC with abdominal probe. We got a sector cardiac probe about 3 mons ago and it's money. Very easy from subxiphoid to get IVC views and then snapshot the RV

 

[Dwindlin]

I was going sub-xiphoid with a curvilinear, then changed to the phased array and had same problem. I could see the structures, it just wasn't clear, and I couldn't make out enough detail to interpret anything.