Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is a real-time bedside tool used by physicians to guide rapid, focused and accurate evaluation in order to identify or rule out various pathologies. We describe the case of an elderly man who had fallen at home 3 days previously and was hypoxic at presentation to the emergency department (ED). POCUS in the ED helped to identify a combination of lung and vascular involvement that indicated COVID-19 infection, which was confirmed by a laboratory test.

Learning points: COVID-19 is a contagious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 that attacks endothelial cells and most organs, resulting in different manifestations and clinical scenarios.Point-of-care ultrasound in the emergency room including lung ultrasound (LUS) and focused echocardiography (FECHO) can be useful in identifying pulmonary and vascular manifestations of COVID-19 disease during the current pandemic.Characteristic LUS signs suggesting bilateral interstitial pneumonia in addition to signs of acute right ventricular strain suggesting pulmonary embolism on FECHO raised the suspicion of COVID-19 infection in our patient.

Keywords: B lines; COVID-19; POCUS; flashing phenomenon; pulmonary embolism.

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interests: The Authors declare that there are no competing interests.