Abstract

MONTANA MANRIQUE, David Enrique; MONTERO VARGAS, Leidy Jholeth  and  VALENCIA, Carlos. Usefulness of pulsed Doppler in the Ultrasound Diagnosis of Occult Pneumothorax: A Case Report. Univ. Med. [online]. 2020, vol.61, n.4, pp.142-148.  Epub Sep 30, 2020. ISSN 0041-9095.  https://doi.org/10.11144/javeriana.umed61-4.dopp.

Pneumothorax is defined as a collection of air between parietal and visceral pleural layers, which can be caused by different medical conditions, being the chest radiography the most used medical diagnostic tool for its detection, but with a low performance in case of hidden pneumothorax, where Chest Tomography has an important role representing the most sensitive and specific method of diagnosis. Likewise, it has been demonstrated that bedside Ultrasound has similar performances to chest tomography and a superior sensitivity compared to chest radiography. Recently, a new technique was described to evaluate lung sliding by using Pulsed Doppler Wave or Pulsed Wave (PW), since movement of lung parenchyma is lost along with Doppler signal from the area. Here we present the case of a patient who consults for respiratory distress after a traffic accident, where the chest radiography and the usual modes of ultrasound did not allow the diagnosis to be made, while the performance of PW suggested the presence of pneumothorax, which was subsequently confirmed by chest tomography, considering PW mode could be a complement to the lung ultrasound algorithm to rule out the presence of pneumothorax in order to improve its performance, being an easy and quick method to perform, allowing an accurate diagnosis.

Keywords : Doppler ultrasonography; pneumothorax; emergency medicine; focused assessment with sonography of trauma.

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