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This German retrospective study compared the prehospital use of ultrasound by trained paramedics and compared their findings to in-hospital diagnosis and image results. The authors found:
“Diagnostic accuracy, defined as the concordance between prehospital POCUS-based working diagnoses and final in-hospital diagnoses, was particularly strong for lung ultrasound (pneumothorax, pulmonary edema, pneumonia and pleural effusion; sensitivity 91.7%, specificity 100%) and eFAST (sensitivity 100%, specificity 96.5%), while for the abdominal ultrasound examinations, the specificity was 70% and sensitivity was 71.43%.”
This study sets the stage for future prospective work looking at prehospital US use by paramedics.
References
Boehm, A., Bexten, T., Stanley, M. et al. Feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of paramedic-performed prehospital point-of-care ultrasound: a retrospective observational study. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-026-01595-4