Contribution of Bedside Lung Ultrasonography to Diagnose in Cases Considered COVID-19 in the Emergency Department

Abstract: - Objective: In this study, we applied the “Six-Zone Lung Point of Care Ultrasonography Scanning Protocol” (6-ZONE), in which the patient is in a sitting position and the lung parenchymal tissue is evaluated from 6 different regions, in order to reduce the risk of droplet transmission to the practitioner. Our aim is to determine the diagnostic value of 6-ZONE in the emergency department (ED) and to determine the correlation between 6-ZONE and computed tomography (CT) results. Material and Methods: This prospective observational clinical study included 50 patients who presented to the ED with suspicion of COVID-19. All participants underwent thorax CT, 6-ZONE and Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test, but the reference diagnostic method was determined as thorax CT. Results: According to 6-ZONE, 52% of the patients (n=26) were evaluated as COVID-19 pneumonia. However, 6-ZONE was found to be false positive in 2 patients and false negative in 3 patients. Accordingly, the sensitivity of 6-ZONE was calculated as 96.3%, specificity as 89.6%, positive predictive value as 94%, and negative predictive value as 86.6%. Conclusions: 6-ZONE performed in the ED for suspected COVID-19 diagnosis has high sensitivity and specificity, and 6-ZONE application may preferred.