Inclusion criteria and stratifications of acutely ill patients
Among the acutely ill patients evaluated, only patients with pro-BNP> 300 pg/ml and who underwent LUS before the start of any treatment were included.
Furthermore, acutely ill patients , in addition to being stratified into three sub-categories based on the diagnosis [A) cardiac disease, B) systemic inflammatory disease/sepsis and C) systemic inflammatory disease/sepsis and cardiac disease], were classified into two groups based on the level of pro-BNP, arbitrarily assuming as a cut-off a pro-BNP value of 1000 pg/ml - level of pro-BNP that several studies have taken as the cut-off value for the clinically significant lung congestion18,19,20,21 - to evaluate any changes in epidemiological / clinical / laboratory / instrumental parameters and in LUS findings based on the lowest or highest pro-BNP level of 1000 pg/ml.