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Question
A patient arrives in acute respiratory distress with left sided chest pain. Ultrasound of the left anterior chest is shown; what's the diagnosis and name one false positive?
Answer
Lung point indicating pneumothorax (PTX)....see below for the false positives
What's the (Lung) Point
- Separation of the visceral and parietal pleural secondary to a PTX leads to well recognized loss of lung sliding on ultrasound.
- Lung point (LP) on ultrasound is where the transition between pleural sliding and the loss of this sliding is demonstrated. Previous studies have reported that the LP has 100% specificity for a PTX.
- Although this is a great sign to demonstrate PTX, be aware that there are several LP mimics:
- lung-heart interface
- lung-diaphragm interface (lower thorax laterally)
- pleural effusion
- blebs
- Check out these great #FOAM posts by @ultrasoundjelly & @ultrasoundMD for more on the LP (and their mimics). Check them out here & here
References
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