Clinical and echocardiographic determinants of ultrasound lung comets.
BACKGROUND
Ultrasound lung comets (ULCs) are an echographic sign of extravascular lung water, that originate from water-thickened interlobular septa.


OBJECTIVE
To establish the echocardiographic correlates of ULCs.


METHODS
340 in-hospital patients (68 +/- 12years, 115 females) admitted to adult cardiology department underwent upon admission a separate evaluation of chest ULCs and a comprehensive 2D and Doppler echocardiography assessment, including the degree of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (from 0 = normal to 3 = restrictive pattern). A patient ULC score has been obtained by summing the number of ULCs from each of the scanning spaces in the anterior right and left chest, from second to fifth intercostal space.


RESULTS
Multivariate linear regression analysis identified New York Heart Association (NYHA) class (OR = 2.1, CI = 1.4-2.9), ejection fraction (OR 0.954, CI = 0.928-0.981) and degree of diastolic dysfunction (OR = 2.438, CI = 1.418-4.190) as the only parameters independently associated to the number of ULCs.


CONCLUSIONS
ULCs are a simple echographic sign of extravascular lung water, more frequently associated with left ventricular diastolic and/or systolic dysfunction. ULCs can usefully integrate the clinical and pathophysiological information provided by conventional 2D and Doppler echocardiography, in patients with known or suspected heart failure and dyspnoea as a presenting symptom.
Frassi
Francesca
F
Institute of Clinical Physiology, Via Moruzzi 1, Pisa 56010, Italy.
Gargani
Luna
L
Gligorova
Suzana
S
Ciampi
Quirino
Q
Mottola
Gaetano
G
Picano
Eugenio
E
D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D015633:Extravascular Lung Water / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male