Influence of Routinely Adding Ultrasound Screening in Medical Department

Helse Nord-Trøndelag HF

Status: Completed

Conditions: Dyspnea; Heart Disease; Liver Disease; Kidney Disease; Aortic Disease

Treatments: Other: Usual care; Procedure: Pocket-size ultrasonography

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01331187

LH-2011-1

Details and patient eligibility

About

Ultrasound (US) is widely used as a diagnostic tool in a hospital setting. In a medical department, diagnosis like heart failure or most kinds of heart diseases, hypervolemia, hypovolemia, pleural effusion, pericardial effusion, ascites, diseases in the gall bladder/bile tract, urine tract and venous thrombosis are common. US is the key diagnostic tool in these diagnosis, and on early diagnosis is crucial with respect to the patients well-being and inpatients workflow.

1. The aim is to study the clinical use of pocket-size US as a screening diagnostic tool in an medical department with respect to inpatients workflow and diagnostics.

Method: Patients admitted (in certain preset periods) to Department of medicine will be randomized to routinely adding an ultrasound examination with pocket-size device by residents on call. Time to definitive diagnosis, time to definitive treatment and time to discard will be recorded. US findings will be validated against standard echocardiography, or standard US/CT/MRI performed at the Radiological department.

Enrollment: 600 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 16+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Patients admitted to Dep. of Medicine at Levanger Hospital

Exclusion criteria

• Not able to give informed consent

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

600 participants in 2 patient groups

Usual care

Active Comparator group

Description:

Usual care diagnostics. No routinely ultrasound examination

Treatment:

Other: Usual care

Routinely ulasonography

Experimental group

Description:

Patients will routinely be examined with ultrasound at admittance in addition to usual care diagnostics

Treatment:

Procedure: Pocket-size ultrasonography