Pulmonary Ultrasound: New Territory

I am excited about a new technique involving ultrasound and the lungs.  I did some research after meeting a student of mine who is a lung doctor here in Houston.  It seems we are now able to identify, evaluate and biopsy the lymph nodes near the Carina.  Techniques and procedures have been invented to stage patients with lung and mediastinal cancers using ultrasound techniques.  These procedures involve ultrasound bronchoscopy.  I am researching companies who provide the equipment for these procedures.  This article I am posting is the first for me, and truly cutting edge.

Here is an article I picked up on the google creature.

For many years the lung has been considered off-limits for ultrasound. However, it has been recently shown that lung ultrasound (LUS) may represent a useful tool for the evaluation of many pulmonary conditions in cardiovascular disease. The main application of LUS for the cardiologist is the assessment of B-lines. B-lines are reverberation artifacts, originating from water-thickened pulmonary interlobular septa. Multiple B-lines are present in pulmonary congestion, and may help in the detection, semiquantification and monitoring of extravascular lung water, in the differential diagnosis of dyspnea, and in the prognostic stratification of chronic heart failure and acute coronary syndromes. 

Thanks Cardiovascular Ultrasound

 http://www.cardiovascularultrasound.com/content/9/1/6