AI-Augmented Point of Care Ultrasound in Intensive Care Unit Patients: Can Novices Perform a “Basic Echo” to Estimate Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction in This Acute-Care Setting?

作者：Cassandra Gallant, Lori A. Bernard, Cherise Kwok, Stephanie Wichuk, Michelle Noga, Kumaradevan Punithakumar, Abhilash Rakkunedeth Hareendranathan, Harald Becher, Brian Buchanan, Jacob L. Jaremko · 发表于：Journal of Clinical Medicine · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3390/jcm14092899 · 被引用次数：9 · 研究领域：Ultrasound in Clinical Applications、Hemodynamic Monitoring and Therapy、Cardiac, Anesthesia and Surgical Outcomes

Background: Echocardiography is crucial to understanding cardiac function in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), often by measuring the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Traditionally, measures of LVEF are completed as part of a comprehensive examination by an expert sonographer or cardiologist, but front-line practitioners increasingly perform focused point-of-care estimates of LVEF while managing life-threatening illness. The two main echocardiographic windows used to grossly estimate LVEF are parasternal and apical windows. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms have recently been developed to assist non-experts in obtaining and interpreting point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) echo images. We tested the feasibility, accuracy and reliability of novice users estimating LVEF using POCUS-AI echo. Methods: A total of 30 novice users (most never holding an ultrasound probe before) received 2 h of instruction, then scanned ICU patients (10 patients, 80 scans) using the Exo Iris POCUS probe with AI guidance tool. They were permitted up to 5 min to attempt parasternal long axis (PLAX) and apical 4 chamber (A4C) views. AI-reported LVEF results from these scans were compared to gold-standard LVEF obtained by an expert echo sonographer. To further assess accuracy, this sonographer also scanned another 65 patients using Exo Iris POCUS-AI vs. conventional protocol. Results: Novices obtained images sufficient to estimate LVEF in 96% of patients in <5 min. Novices obtained PLAX views...