Moving beyond the lines: lung ultrasound pixel-wise computer-assisted analysis for critically ill patients

Abstract

Lung ultrasonography (LUS) has become an essential component of the evaluation and clinical management of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). The interpretation of LUS artifact (A- and B-patterns), analysis of the pleura, and the visualization of real images (C pattern) have demonstrated usefulness for the differential diagnosis of acute respiratory failure (ARF) [1]. However, current methods are non-quantitative and have important drawbacks deriving from visually guided assessment of LUS data [2]. Interestingly, recent in vitro and in vivo studies suggest that LUS data carry valuable information that correlates with lung density [2].