Sonographic diagnosis and monitoring of COVID-19

全国新冠肺炎病例的持续增加以及随后爆发的可能性要求新的工具来协助卫生专业人员进行早期诊断和患者监测。世界各地越来越多的证据表明，肺部超声检查可以发现新冠肺炎感染的表现。超声成像有几个特点，使其非常适合常规用途：小型手持系统可以包含在一个保护套内，使其比X射线或计算机断层扫描更容易消毒;肺部超声允许在长期护理院、帐篷或医院以外的其他地区对患者进行分类，在这些地区没有其他成像模式;它可以在疾病的早期阶段确定肺部受累，并每天在床边监测受影响的患者。然而，肺部超声的常规使用仍然存在一些挑战。也就是说，目前的检查实践和图像解释是相当具有挑战性的，特别是对于非专业人员。 马里恩外科医院和安大略技术学院的研究人员合作的目的是创建一种用户友好的计算机辅助方法，可以帮助肺部超声诊断和监测新冠肺炎。Marion Surgical在医疗模拟器和图像处理方面拥有丰富的专业知识。他们开发了一种用于肺动脉内膜切除术的模拟器，该模拟器使用机器学习来自动识别CT扫描中肺部是否存在血凝块。该公司试图应用这种方法来帮助医疗专业人员评估与新冠肺炎感染相关的风险，并更好地了解它如何在肺部超声图像中表现出来。此次合作将利用Marion Surgical的软件开发专业知识以及安大略科技公司的资源和实验室专业知识，为新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）诊断创建一个首个与袖珍超声换能器兼容的平台。这将极大地帮助在资源有限的前线（如长期护理院）抗击新冠肺炎的医疗专业人员。

The sustained increase in new cases of covid-19 across the country and potential for subsequent outbreaks call for new tools to assist health professionals with early diagnosis and patient monitoring. Growing evidence around the world is showing that lung ultrasound examination can detect manifestations of covid-19 infection. Ultrasound imaging has several characteristics that make it ideally suited for routine use: Small hand-held systems can be contained inside a protective sheath, making it easier to disinfect than X-ray or computed tomography; lung ultrasound allows triage of patients in long term care homes, tents or other areas outside of the hospital where other imaging modalities are not available; and it can determine lung involvement during the early phases of the disease and monitor affected patients at bedside on a daily basis. However, some challenges still remain with routine use of lung ultrasound. Namely, current examination practices and image interpretation are quite challenging, especially for unspecialised personnel. The objective of this partnership between Marion Surgical and Ontario Tech researchers is to create a user friendly computer-aided method that can assist with lung ultrasound diagnosis and monitoring of covid-19. Marion Surgical has extensive expertise with medical simulators and image processing. They have developed a simulator for pulmonary endarterectomy that uses machine learning to identify the presence of blood clots in the lung autonomously in CT scans. The company seeks to apply this approach to help medical professionals assess the risks associated with covid-19 infections, and better understand how it manifests in lung ultrasound images. This collaboration will leverage Marion Surgical's software development expertise with Ontario Tech's resources and lab expertise to create a first-of-its-kind platform for covid-19 diagnosis that is compatible with a pocket-size ultrasound transducer. This will greatly assist medical professionals fighting covid-19 on the front lines where resources are limited, such as in long-term care homes.