CORRELATION BETWEEN AUTOMATED AND MANUAL ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC MEASUREMENTS OF LEFT VENTRICULAR EJECTION FRACTION, VELOCITY TIME INTEGRAL, AND INFERIOR VENA CAVA DIAMETERS IN ADULT PATIENTS WITH SEPTIC SHOCK: A PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY.

Septic shock represents the most severe manifestation of sepsis, characterized by profound circulatory, cellular, and metabolic dysfunction leading to life-threatening organ failure. Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) brought the cardiac ultrasound to the bed side, providing relevant, accurate and reproducible information for diagnosis, therapy, and monitoring. The POCUS echo exams remain heavily dependent on the operator skill and experience. Use of Point Of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) in critically ill patients have been recommended by various guidelines and forums including Task force of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, Society of Critical Care Medicine. While doing focused echocardiography, the intensivists is tasked with both the manual image acquisition and its interpretation*,*which requires training and experience. Advances in artificial intelligence in echocardiography made it possible to use it as a tool for automatic measurement of some cardiac and hemodynamic parameters. Automatic echo tools can standardize the image acquisition and their interpretation even in the hands of minimally trained operator. Automation tools in POCUS have been developed only for Left ventricle ejection fraction, Left ventricle outflow tract velocity time integral, and inferior vena cava diameters by Point of Care Ultrasound machines. The present prospective observational study is planned to evaluate the correlation between manual and automated measurement of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricular outflow tract velocity time integral (LVOT VTI) and inferior vena cava (IVC) diameters in adult patients with septic shock.