Lung Ultrasound in the Critically Ill (LUCI): A Translational Discipline

In the early days of ultrasound, it was not a translational discipline. The heart was claimed by cardiologists, with others, such as gynaecologists, urologists and vascular surgeons claiming their part while the rest was given to radiologists. Only recently, ultrasound transgressed and crossed the usual borders between the different disciplines, such as emergency and critical care medicine. The advent of portable machines in the early 1980s, allowed the critical care physician to perform bedside ultrasound, and the development of whole body critical care ultrasound (CCUS) was born. It may sound cynical that radiologists were the first to state that diagnostic sonography was truly the next stethoscope: poorly utilized by many but understood by few. Exactly the same radiologists then abandoned the use of ultrasound outside the radiology department, leaving a vast domain to other disciplines eager to welcome the modern stethoscope. In this review, we list the possibilities of lung ultrasound as a translational holistic discipline.