Signs and lines in lung ultrasound.

Point-of-care ultrasound has become firmly established in acute and critical care settings, and is now increasingly being used as an important tool in the assessment of the lungs. In this article, we briefly describe the technique of lung ultrasound and the various lines and signs commonly encountered during sonography of the lung, namely the normally visualised A- and T-lines and the bat sign, sliding sign (power slide sign on colour Doppler), sea-shore sign, curtain sign, and the lung pulse. We have also described signs seen in various pathological conditions like B-lines seen in cases of increased lung density; the quad sign, sinusoid sign, thoracic spine sign, plankton sign and the jelly fish sign seen in pleural effusion; the stratosphere sign and the lung point sign seen in pneumothorax; the shred/fractal sign and tissue-like sign in consolidation, and the double lung point sign seen in transient tachypnoea of the newborn. With adequate and appropriate training, lung ultrasound can be effectively utilised as a point-of-care investigation.

"Crown of Death"; Corona Mortis, a Common Vascular Variant in Pelvis: Identification at Routine 64-Slice CT-Angiography.

OBJECTIVE: To establish the incidence of arterial corona mortis variant in angiographic studies being performed using a 64 slice CT scan machine in a series of patients. METHODS: This was a prospective cross-sectional study including 100 consecutive patients undergoing routine clinically indicated, standard protocol, CT-angiography for the abdominal aorta and/or lower limbs using a 64 slice CT scanner. Patients having severe arterial insufficiency (Grade 4 stenosis on CT angiography), pelvic infections and tumours, patients with past pelvic trauma and those who had previous pelvic surgery were excluded from the study. In total 200 hemi-pelvises were evaluated for the presence or absence of corona morti. RESULTS: Overall, we included 100 patients in this series including 67 men and 33 women with mean age of 40.1±2.3 (ranging from 22-74) years. The arterial variant was identified on thin, 0.625-mm-thick images in 24 out of 100 patients studied (unilateral in 20 patients and bilateral in 4 patients; 28 out of 200 hemipelvises evaluated, having an incidence of 14%). We found that the distance of corona mortis artery from the symphysis was significantly greater for women compared to men, both on right (p=0.034) and left sides (p=0.046). CONCLUSION: Corona mortis may be prospectively identified at contrast-enhanced multidetector CT especially in pelvic trauma patients and help guide subsequent endovascular embolization or surgical interventions.

Extrinsic compression of left main coronary artery due to dilated pulmonary trunk resulting in ischaemic symptoms.

Left coronary artery compression syndrome is an uncommon entity and characterized by compression of the LMCA in-between the aorta and an enlarged main pulmonary arterial trunk. It is usually associated with a congenital cardiac defect. Cardiac 64-slice MDCT provides a non-invasive and an accurate method for assessing the degree of dynamic LMCA compression throughout the cardiac cycle, its angulation relative to the left sinus of Valsalva and depiction of pulmonary pathology, making it a valuable tool in the workup of patients suspected of left coronary artery compression.

Reversal sign: a red-flag in emergency departments.

The reversal sign is an ominous finding seen on computed tomographic images of the brain as an inversion of the normal attenuation relationship between grey and white matter. This article describes the pathophysiology of the reversal sign, which indicates irreversible neural tissue damage, and includes a brief case study of a child who drowned and later developed this sign. The child died two hours after presenting to the emergency department. Emergency healthcare professionals should be aware of this sign, which is significant in terms of diagnosis, management and prognosis. Knowledge of the reversal sign will also help emergency nurses support relatives who are about to be notified about the possible long-term neurological deficits in, or death of, their loved one.