Bedside Limited Echocardiography by the Emergency Physician Is Accurate During Evaluation of the Critically Ill Patient

Abstract
Objective. Echocardiography can be a rapid, noninvasive, objective tool in the assessment of ventricular function and preload during resuscitation of a critically ill or injured child. We sought to determine the accuracy of bedside limited echocardiography by the emergency physician (BLEEP) in estimation of (1) left ventricular function (LVF) and (2) inferior vena cava (IVC) volume, as an indirect measure of preload.