Prospective Evaluation With Ultrasound of Emergency Department Patients Presenting With Cough or Dyspnea

Acute dyspnea (shortness of breath) is a common complaint for patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED). The chest radiograph (CXR) has been the mainstay in evaluating patients with shortness of breath and often provides the timely diagnosis of pneumonia, pneumothorax, pulmonary edema, among other primary diseases of the lung. There are limitations with chest radiograph such as large body mass (e.g, obesity) and patient positioning. On occasion, chest radiography findings are difficult to interpret. Lung ultrasonography may offer a means of clarifying ambiguous results. Advantages of ultrasound include real-time immediate evaluation, it is non-invasive and does not use radiation.

The investigators seek to perform a prospective evaluation of patients presenting to the University of Washington Medical Center ED for cough, wheezing and/or shortness of breath.

The objective of this study to determine the usefulness of point of care lung ultrasound in evaluating patients presenting to the ED with shortness of breath, cough and/or wheezing.

The specific aim of this study is to further define the utility of point-of-care ultrasound in the evaluation of emergency department patients presenting with cough, wheezing and/or shortness of breath. The investigators will compare ultrasound results to radiograph and tomography results when available, and to the physicians initial impression.