Teaching Medical Students Left Internal Thoracic Artery Ultrasound

Introduction: Previous studies have described techniques for performing ultrasound of the left internal thoracic artery. The purpose of this study is to assess the ability of medical students with little prior ultrasound experience to quickly find and identify the left internal thoracic artery after a brief instructional session. Materials and Methods: Fifty-one first-year medical students were taught to perform ultrasound of the left internal thoracic artery. The instruction consisted of a 5-min didactic followed by a 2-min real-time ultrasound demonstration. Each participant was then given a maximum of 2 min to find the artery while scanning a standardized patient. A radiologist made the determination of whether or not the student pointed out the correct structure within that time period. If the student was successful, then the time to locate the artery was recorded. The students also completed a questionnaire about the ultrasound experience. Results: Forty (78 %) of the 51 students correctly identified the artery in less than 2 min. For those students, the mean time to locate the artery was 69.5 s. Four students pointed out the incorrect structure. Seven students ran out of time before pointing out a structure. Nearly all of the students indicated that they enjoyed the experience and that it increased their interest in ultrasound. Conclusions: This study showed that novice ultrasound users can quickly learn to locate the left internal thoracic artery with ultrasound.