Expecting the unexpected: Echo laboratory preparedness in the time of COVID-19.
Alan B GoldbergStella KyungSean SwearingenAnupama RaoPublished in: Echocardiography (Mount Kisco, N.Y.) (2020)
COVID-19 poses a unique set of challenges to the healthcare system due to its rapid spread, intensive resource utilization, and relatively high morbidity and mortality. Healthcare workers are at especially high risk of exposure given the viruses spread through close contact. Reported cardiac complications of COVID-19 include myocarditis, acute coronary syndrome, cardiomyopathy, pericardial effusion, arrhythmia, and shock. Thus, echocardiography is integral in the timely diagnosis and clinical management of COVID-19 patients. Rush University Medical Center has been at the forefront of the COVID-19 response in Illinois with high numbers of cases reported in Chicago and surrounding areas. The echocardiography laboratory at Rush University Medical Center (RUMC) proactively took numerous steps to balance the imaging needs of a busy, nearly 700-bed academic medical center while maintaining safety.
Keyphrases
- sars cov
- coronavirus disease
- acute coronary syndrome
- left ventricular
- respiratory syndrome coronavirus
- computed tomography
- public health
- magnetic resonance
- high resolution
- pulmonary hypertension
- percutaneous coronary intervention
- risk factors
- coronary artery disease
- atrial fibrillation
- mass spectrometry
- quantum dots
- sensitive detection
- fluorescence imaging