The American journal of emergency medicine
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Hypovolemic shock is an important cause of death in the emergency department (ED). We sought to conduct a meta-analysis to quantify existing evidence on sonographic measurement of inferior vena cava (IVC) diameter in assessing of volume status adult ED patients. ⋯ Moderate level of evidence suggests that the IVC diameter is consistently low in hypovolemic status when compared with euvolemic. Further blinded studies are needed before it could be used in the ED with confidence.