• Amaali Lokuge, Jana Alexander, Benjamin Land, and Amy McAllister.
• Emergency Department, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
• Emerg Med Australas. 2020 Oct 1; 32 (5): 883-889.

AbstractAustralian hospitals have prepared for a major surge in patients due to the infectious respiratory pandemic COVID-19. In other nations, patient presentations have overwhelmed resources. Ultrasound has been shown to be an effective tool to exclude significant life-threats in resource poor settings. In this article, we will describe three lung ultrasound algorithms for the emergency diagnosis of patients presenting with respiratory symptoms during a COVID-19 pandemic: (i) LUSC19: lung ultrasound to assess the severity of COVID-19; (ii) LUSAC: lung ultrasound to exclude alternative causes of respiratory distress; and (iii) LUSI: lung ultrasound following intubation. We anticipate that emergency physicians will use these algorithms during the upcoming respiratory pandemic to rapidly determine the severity of COVID-19 infection, to seek and treat significant alternative diagnoses and ensure endotracheal intubation.© 2020 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.

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