British journal of anaesthesia
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Review
Is thoracic ultrasound a viable alternative to conventional imaging in the critical care setting?
Thoracic imaging is regularly performed on the majority of critical care patients. Conventionally, this uses a combination of plain radiography and computed tomography. There is growing enthusiasm for the use of ultrasound to replace much of this radiology and provide more immediate, point-of-care imaging with reduction in patient transfers, ionizing radiation exposure and cost. ⋯ The technique also has potential to identify the cause of increased EVLW and accurately quantify pleural effusions. More large-scale studies are required in these areas however. Ultrasonography outperforms bedside chest radiography in all cases.
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In this study, we tested the reliability of a non-invasive finger-cuff-based continuous arterial blood pressure monitoring device (Nexfin, BMEYE, Amsterdam, NL) in critically ill surgical patients. ⋯ Non-invasive blood pressure monitoring with Nexfin does not seem to be sufficiently accurate to replace intra-arterial invasive blood pressure measurements in critically ill patients.