lung ultrasound – Vet Practice Support

The 2024 ‘Italian Protocol’ for lung ultrasound scoring

I like this new article on lung ultrasound: J Vet Intern Med 2024 Jan-Feb;38(1):336-345Lung ultrasound score in dogs and cats: A reliability studyStefano Oricco, Daniele Medico, Ilaria Tommasi, Richard Marcello Bini, Roberto Rabozzi https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jvim.16956 Obviously, lung ultrasound has been a fast-evolving area in recent years with new ideas coming and sometimes going again! This particular … Continue reading

06/03/2024 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography, Uncategorized

Is this dog with heart disease in congestive failure?

The more you know the more you realise how little you know. On the face of it, the principle of diagnosing congestive heart failure (CHF) is simple enough. Until you start seeing cases where, in practice, it’s not simple at all! It’s reassuring to find that human medics have the same problem. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10375124/ ‘Diagnosing non‐secondary … Continue reading

13/01/2024 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography, Uncategorized

Lung ultrasound in cats and dogs: why does it get such a varied reception? Things become clearer

My impression, from a UK veterinary perspective, is that lung ultrasound (LUS) gets variable press. Specifically, most specialist cardiologists don’t much care for it. It’s useful to understand why this is. It’s no coincidence that LUS was discovered and developed primarily by human acute care physicians in intensive care units (ICUs) and emergency departments. Looking … Continue reading

06/05/2023 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography, Uncategorized

Sonography of canine interstitial lung disease: some examples

Firstly, a young CKCS with PCR +ve Pneumocystis pneumonia: this dog had a history of masticatory muscle myositis managed successfully with chronic steroid therapy until he recently developed severely increased respiratory effort. There are widespread lines perpendicular to the pleurae. As discussed in previous posts, the appearance of abnormal lung lines on ultrasound is … Continue reading

14/04/2023 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography, Uncategorized

Pneumonia in dogs: gastrointestinal presenting signs

With the advent of lung ultrasound and the resulting great leap forward in our ability to diagnose bronchopneumonia relatively easily and with good specificity has opened a door on its true incidence and the spectrum of associated presenting signs. Notably, we now see affected dogs in which gastrointestinal signs are prominent. It’s hard to prove … Continue reading

03/01/2022 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography, Uncategorized

Which imaging modality is optimal for diagnosing cardiogenic pulmonary oedema and other lung pathology in dogs and cats?

Hot off the JSAP press we have just been reading the new and exciting: J Small Anim Pract 2021 Mar;62(3):178-186Diagnostic accuracy of a lung ultrasound protocol (Vet BLUE) for detection of pleural fluid, pneumothorax and lung pathology in dogs and catsL Cole, M Pivetta, K Humm https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsap.13271 ‘Results: When using CT as the reference standard, … Continue reading

15/03/2021 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography, Uncategorized

Lung ultrasound in the diagnosis of presumed pulmonary mycobacteriosis in a cat

Surprisingly, considering the wealth of information on conventional bacterial pneumonia, there is little published on the features of pulmonary TB in people. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Oct; 15(10): 2235. Potential Diagnostic Properties of Chest Ultrasound in Thoracic Tuberculosis—A Systematic Review Francesco Di Gennaro,1,2,† Luigi Pisani,3,4,† Nicola Veronese,5 Damiano Pizzol,6,* Valeria Lippolis,4 Annalisa … Continue reading

17/11/2019 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography

Lung ultrasound: ‘flooding’ in fulminant pulmonary oedema in cats and a comparison with pneumonia

Pulmonary oedema in cats and dogs is typically characterised by increased ‘B lines’ (also known as ultrasound lung rockets or comet-tail artefacts). This is a feature of oedema in the broadest sense and is not specific to aetiology. Differential diagnosis of this phenomenon includes trauma, electrocution, acute respiratory distress syndrome/acute lung injury, overhydration, asthma, near-downing … Continue reading

12/11/2018 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography

Pulmonary oedema as judged by lung ultrasound: recent advances

Lung ultrasound remains a hot topic with the publication this year of another couple of great articles. Tommaso Vezzosi and colleagues look at the diagnostic accuracy of lung ultrasound (LUS) for cardiogenic pulmonary oedema and correlate findings with ACVIM consensus staging system. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jvim.14692/pdf Reassuringly they report that: B lines are rare or absent in @90% … Continue reading

07/06/2017 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography

Lung ultrasound in feline asthma

Acute severe dyspnoea is a common, life-threatening condition in cats. The principal differentials being: cardiogenic pulmonary oedema asthma/allergic airway disease pleural effusion of various causes pneumothorax ruptured diaphragm Ultrasonography is a useful tool to distinguish between these and offers major advantages in that it can usually be performed quickly, without manual or chemical restraint by … Continue reading

15/05/2017 roger cardiology, Internal medicine, ultrasonography

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