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During the congress, E-Posters will be accessible to all participants on the congress website 24/7, as well as in the E-poster stations in the congress center.
Preparing your E-Poster
Please review the E-Poster format requirements carefully when preparing your E-Poster. Should your E-Poster not meet the mentioned requirements, it may not be displayed as described above.
E-Poster Submission Deadline
Please prepare and upload your E-Poster no later than March 14, 2026 11.59PM CET. After this date, you will no longer be able to prepare and upload your E-poster and it will not be displayed and accessible on the congress website.
Please follow the instructions below to input your abstract title.
Abstract titles should be brief and reflect the content of the abstract.
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is an emerging bedside modality that augments the physical examination and provides real-time hemodynamic data. Assessment of volume status is particularly challenging in hemodialysis patients because conventional clinical markers and dry-weight estimation by bioimpedance may not reliably reflect effective extracellular volume. We evaluated the utility of a focused POCUS protocol performed immediately prior to hemodialysis to detect sonographic markers of vascular and tissue congestion.
We performed a prospective observational study in a chronic hemodialysis unit. Consecutive prevalent patients on maintenance hemodialysis underwent a standardized pre-dialysis POCUS protocol including lung ultrasound (B-lines and pleural effusion), focused cardiac ultrasound (pericardial effusion, estimation of LVEF by AI-assisted algorithm), and portal vein pulsatility variation (PVPV) as a marker of systemic venous congestion. Demographic, clinical, and bioimpedance dry-weight data were recorded. Descriptive statistics are reported as mean ± SD or median (IQR) as appropriate. The study protocol was approved by the local ethics committee and all patients provided informed consent.
This is only a preview of this protocol. Eight prevalent hemodialysis patients were included (mean age 42.9 ± 18.4 years; 87.5% male). All had tunneled right internal jugular vascular access; 75% had CKD G5. Mean dry weight 70.7 ± 17.9 kg; pre-dialysis weight 71.4 ± 18.3 kg; median interdialytic weight gain 2.9 kg (IQR 1.9–3.2). Despite most patients being at or near estimated dry weight by bioimpedance, 100% exhibited a B-line pulmonary pattern and 75% had pulmonary congestion in >4 lung quadrants. Pleural effusion occurred in 25% and pericardial effusion in 12.5%. Median AI-estimated LVEF was 49% (IQR 41–54). Portal vein pulsatililty >30% was found in 87.5%, with a median 33.5% (IQR 28.5–46), consistent with mild–moderate venous congestion. Mean systolic/diastolic BP were 145/82 mmHg; mean HR 73 bpm; SpO₂ 95%. Notably, 87.5% of patients were asymptomatic for fluid overload. Figure 1.
This pre-dialysis POCUS protocol detected frequent subclinical pulmonary and systemic venous congestion in hemodialysis patients, even when bioimpedance-based dry weight suggested euvolemia in some patients. These findings imply that conventional dry-weight assessment may underestimate effective extracellular volume in some patients and support routine incorporation of lung and hemodynamic ultrasound into pre-dialysis evaluation to optimize volume management. This is only a preview and a small sample; data collection is ongoing to validate these preliminary observations and to establish clinically applicable congestion thresholds for the hemodialysis population.
