Coronavirus: As it happened on Wednesday 13 May - BBC News
What happened with the coronavirus pandemic in Wales on Wednesday, 13 May.
A Cardiff University-led review is being used to inform pioneering use of lung ultrasound to help in the management of patients with Covid-19.

The academics were first to summarise early evidence on ultrasound imaging - more commonly used in pregnancy or for muscle injury - and how to use it to assess and monitor lung damage.

Lung damage is one of the most serious problems for patients with severe symptoms of Covid-19.

Key decisions such as admitting a patient to hospital, moving a patient from a ward to a high dependency unit, or whether they should be put on mechanical ventilation or taken off it, are usually informed by CT scans, chest x-rays or by listening to the chest.

But for infection control reasons these cannot be used in the monitoring of Covid-19.

The review's lead author Dr Mike Smith, a senior lecturer from Cardiff University’s School of Healthcare Sciences, said: “We wanted to take the information that was flying around the research and clinical communities and make it more useful for clinicians - right at the beginning of the pandemic curve.

"Since then lung ultrasound has emerged as critical to monitoring lung injury caused by Covid-19.”

Simon Hayward, a specialist physiotherapist from Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “It’s an amazing tool because we can observe the changes in lung damage - and use it to inform how we manage these patients in real time."