In the wake of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the world has been engaged in a protracted battle against a deadly infectious disease. As of October 2020, the COVID-19 virus has struck over 37 million people globally and has taken over 1 million lives. Since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, ultrasound imaging has played a major role in facilitating primary diagnosis and in managing the comorbidities of COVID-19 patients. As compared to other medical imaging tools, ultrasound is distinguished in its versatility, portability, and cost-effectiveness. Accordingly, ultrasound has been widely deployed as a point-of-care modality in emergency medicine and in critical care for diagnosing the respiratory health of COVID-19 patients. In addition to its use in COVID-19 diagnostics, ultrasound imaging has gained significant interest in recent years in other areas of lung diagnostics. Nowadays, lung ultrasound researchers are actively devising new algorithms, techniques, and hardware to enhance ultrasound’s diagnostic value in lung clinics.

中文翻译：

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超声成像：COVID-19和肺部诊断的沉默英雄

在新型冠状病毒（COVID-19）大流行之后，世界一直在与致命的传染病进行长期斗争。截至2020年10月，COVID-19病毒在全球范围内袭击了3700万人，并夺去了100万人的生命。自从COVID-19爆发以来，超声成像在促进主要诊断和管理COVID-19患者合并症中起了重要作用。与其他医学成像工具相比，超声在多功能性，便携性和成本效益方面均卓著。因此，超声已被广泛部署为急诊医学和重症监护中用于诊断COVID-19患者呼吸道健康的护理点。除了用于COVID-19诊断程序之外，近年来，超声成像在肺部诊断的其他领域引起了极大的兴趣。如今，肺部超声研究人员正在积极设计新的算法，技术和硬件，以增强超声在肺部临床中的诊断价值。