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Immersion pulmonary oedema, also referred to as swimming-induced pulmonary oedema, is a form of pulmonary oedema which usually occurs during swimming in cold water. The condition is most common in triathlon athletes; it was first reported in military divers. The main symptoms include acute dyspnoea, cough, and occasionally haemoptysis, which usually subside within approximately 48 hours. The pathomechanism is not fully understood, but oedema is suspected to be due to an increased systemic vascular resistance that overloads the left ventricle. The diagnostic process can be challenging and require multiple stages to rule out a number of other possible conditions. In view of the circumstances in which incidents typically occur, immersion pulmonary oedema poses an immediate life threat to individuals involved in selected forms of physical activity, where survival is often determined by appropriate training of medical services.

The assessment of elite athletes after SARS-CoV-2 infection gives rise to doubts concerning return-to-play decisions: what period of convalescence is needed and what diagnostic measures are appropriate. While cardiovascular protocols have been widely discussed in the literature, lung parenchyma imaging was only briefly mentioned, and the usefulness of lung ultrasound has been not considered yet.

Despite the fact that more and more guidelines that systematize our knowledge are being published, infective endocarditis remains a considerable diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. This is partially caused by the variable course of the disease process and numerous potential complications with high mortality. We present a case of a 48-year-old police officer with an inflammatory process within the aortic valve that led to the development of peripheral emboli in the central nervous system, kidney, spleen and within the lumbosacral spine. The complexity of the clinical situation required the cooperation of various medical specialists and combined use of various imaging methods, including ultrasound. This ultimately enabled the correct diagnosis to be established and had a significant impact on the planning and monitoring of the diagnostic process.