Effects of Point-of-care Ultrasonography on the Diagnostic Process of Patients Admitted to the Emergency Department with Chest Pain: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of point of care ultrasonography (POCUS) performed for heart, lung, aorta, hepatobiliary and deep veins on the diagnosis, length of stay (LOS) in emergency department (ED) and cost in patients admitted to the ED with chest pain. Study Design: Prospective randomised controlled, parallel-group trial. Place and Duration of Study: Sakarya University Training and Research Hospital, Sakarya Turkey, from September 2018 to March 2019. Methodology: Patients (>= 18 years) with chest pain were randomly assigned at a 1:1 ratio to a standard diagnostic strategy (control group) or to standard diagnostic strategy supplemented with POCUS (POCUS group). Data obtained from the study were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 21. Results: Two hundred and eight patients were randomly assigned to the control (n=104) and POCUS groups (n=104), respectively. The mean age was 50.42 +/- 16.15, and 54% were men. The most common comorbidity was hypertension (43%). Non-ST elevation myocardial infarction and musculoskeletal pain were the most common presumptive diagnoses. POCUS significantly reduced the LOS in ED. Detection of pathology in the POCUS increased the rate of hospitalisation. In addition, POCUS significantly shortened the LOS in the ED in patients who were discharged. The median LOS in the ED for the POCUS group was 133 min (91-279), which was significantly shorter than that of the control group at 215 min (118-372) (p=0.006). Although the average costs were also reduced, the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.269). Conclusion: POCUS is a repeatable, practical imaging method which does not require radiation, reduces LOS in the ED statistically significant. However, further studies are needed to determine its usefulness in the ED.