curtain sign on ultrasound can look similar to lung point
- related: chest imaging
- tags: #literature #pulmonology #icu
There is a small pleural effusion just above the diaphragm and a consolidation in the patient’s lung parenchyma, with pockets of hyperechoic trapped air (Figure 1). As the patient inspires, there is movement of the aerated (with scattered B lines) upper lobe down toward the lower lobe, and this finding has been called a curtain sign. When the upper lobe moves downward, it obscures the consolidated lower lobe.
As the left hemidiaphragm descends, the tip of the lung slides below the transducer and creates an acoustic barrier or “curtain” that conceals the superior aspect of the spleen and the dome of the hemidiaphragm. The visualized descending lung has a thin, sharp pleural line, many A lines, and a paucity of B lines.
Contrast this with lung point which can be sign of pneumothorax:
A lung point is an ultrasonographic sign of pneumothorax. A lung point is the location at which the visceral pleura becomes separated from the parietal pleura by air in the pleural space. The acoustic impedance created by the pneumothorax prevents sound waves from being able to visualize the sliding visceral pleural line below. Even though pleural sliding is absent over the pneumothorax, A line reverberations are still present.123