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Postgrad Med J 2005;81:777-779 doi:10.1136/pgmj.2005.033605
  • Original article

Agreement between community echocardiography and hospital echocardiography in patients suspected of having left ventricular systolic dysfunction

  1. S Jeyaseelan1,
  2. B M Goudie2,
  3. S D Pringle3,
  4. P T Donnan4,
  5. F M Sullivan4,
  6. A D Struthers5
  1. 1Department of Cardiology, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
  2. 2Westgate Health Centre, Dundee, UK
  3. 3Department of Cardiology, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, UK
  4. 4Division of Community Health Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK
  5. 5Division of Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr S Jeyaseelan
 Department of Cardiology, Freeman Hospital, Freeman Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE7 7DN, UK; sjeyaseelan{at}doctors.org.uk
  • Received 20 February 2005
  • Accepted 6 April 2005

Abstract

Background: Smaller echocardiography machines, when used in hospitals, are accurate for detecting left ventricular dysfunction and valvular disease. This paper assessed the detection of left ventricular dysfunction and of valvular disease in the community setting by a smaller machine.

Aims: To measure the agreement in patients with suspected heart failure between community echocardiography and traditional echocardiography in the hospital in detecting left ventricular dysfunction and significant valve disease.

Methods: Suspected heart failure patients were referred to one of the authors (SJ) for community echocardiography using a Siemens Cypress machine. The patients had a second echocardiogram in the hospital by another sonographer who was blinded to the results of the first echocardiogram. The reports of the two sonographers were assessed for agreement using κ statistics.

Results: 458 patients had a community echocardiogram and 136 agreed to a second echocardiogram in the hospital. There was excellent agreement, κ = 0.87 (0.06 SE), for the detection of left ventricular dysfunction between community echocardiography and the hospital machine. The detection of significant valvular disease was good, κ = 0.75 (0.06) between the community echocardiogram and hospital machines.

Conclusions: In suspected heart failure patients, community echocardiography gives comparable results to traditional hospital echocardiography for left ventricular dysfunction detection and for significant valvular disease detection.

Footnotes

  • Funding: British Heart Foundation funded project.

  • Competing interests: none declared.

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