CHEst PHysical Examination integrated with UltraSound - Phase (CHEPHEUS1). A survey of Accademia di Ecografia Toracica (AdET).

Abstract

Background: Chest physical exam (CPE) is based on the four pillars of classical semiotics. However, CPE's sensitivity and specificity are low, and is affected by operators' skills. The aim of this work was to explore the contribution of chest ultrasound (US) to the traditional CPE.

Methods: For this purpose, a survey was submitted to US users. They were asked to rate the usefulness of classical semiotics and chest US in evaluating each item of CPE pillars. The study was conducted and described according to the STROBE checklist. The study used the freely available online survey cloud-web application (Google Forms, Google Ireland Ltd, Mountain View, CA, USA).

Results: The results showed a tendency to prefer chest US to palpation and percussion, suggesting a possible -future approach based on inspection, auscultation and palpatory ultrasound evaluation.

Conclusion: The results of our survey introduce, for the first time, the role of ultrasound as a pillar of physical examination. Our project CHEPHEUS has the aim to study and propose a new way of performing the physical exam in the future.