RESUMO
Background: We conducted this study to assess the diagnostic test properties of point of care ultrasonography (POCUS) of lung and cardiovascular system in prediction of mortality in COVID-19 patients. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 178 Covid-19 patients; POCUS was performed within one hour of admission to the ICU. We estimated sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value for prediction of mortality. Results: The mean (SD) age of these patients was 57.3 (12.8) years. The findings were on cardiac ultrasonography were: mild pericardial effusion (45%), chamber dilatation (15%), hypokinesia (11%), and low ejection fraction (8%). In our study, 30 patients (17%) had died. A cut-off score of > to 13 (for lung ultrasound score [LUS]) had high sensitivity for mortality (93.3%, 95% CI: 77.9-99.2%). However, low ejection fraction (92.3%, 95% CI: 86,6-96.1%), and thrombosis in either vein (96.5%, 95% CI: 92.0-98.9%) were specific for mortality. A combination of LUS > =13 or low ejection fraction or thrombosis or spontaneous echo contrast (slow flow) improved sensitivity for mortality to 96.7% (95% CI: 82.8-99.9%). The agreement between LUS of > =13 and CT score of moderate/severe was 85.7% (95% CI: 62.8-100%). The interrater agreement between these two parameters was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.68, 0.97). Conclusions: Multi-organ POCUS is effective in diagnosis, prognosis, and management of COVID-19 patients. Rather than just lung ultrasound, clinicians should use multiorgan POCUS for early identification of severe lung involvement and thrombotic changes; it may help reduce mortality in these patients.
RESUMO
A new pairwise osteometric pair-matching approach based on the Z-transform method is presented. In contrast to previous methods that perform a global t-test on the summed skeletal element pair measurement distances, this approach performs t-tests on each individual distance, facilitating the capture of measurement-specific variation. This new approach is compared to published pairwise sorting methods using a standard reference dataset of postcranial remains maintained by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicates significantly improved performance for the clavicle and radius over all previous methods (p < 0.01). The z-transform method weighted by the effect size outperformed the t-test (Byrd and Adams) and the mean t-test (Lynch) for all elements (p < 0.01). The method performed better than the absolute value t-test (Lynch) for five elements (p < 0.01) and performed at least as well for the remainder. To facilitate usability all methods are available at: https://github.com/spawaskar-cora/z-transform-method.
