Images of IVC while evaluating a patient who presented with a CHF exacerbation.
Much of medicine is pattern recognition, and this is especially true of ultrasound. As we image patients, patterns emerge in the anatomy that can help us to more rapidly identify what we see on the screen. The IVC when imaged in the long axis often looks like a smiling whale. To get this view place the phased array, or curvilinear probe subxiphoid, with the indicator, pointed towards the head.
