Handheld Echocardiography in Clinical Practice

Mayo Clinic

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cardiovascular Disease

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01558518

11-008019

Details and patient eligibility

About

Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) represents an established and fundamental tool for the evaluation of patients with known or suspected cardiovascular disease. Recently, manufacturers have developed handheld echocardiograms small enough to fit in the pocket of a physician's lab coat. Studies assessing these handheld devices have several limitations. While they have generally evaluated the handheld devices favorably, previous studies has not consistently studied handheld devices under the best possible clinical conditions and have not necessarily highlighted the devices' limitations.

In this proposal, we seek to analyze the applicability of handheld echocardiograms to standard clinical practice. The investigators plan to use trained sonographers to perform handheld examinations on patients referred for TTE without established cardiovascular disease. The handheld images will be interpreted by experienced, consultant-level echocardiographers. The investigators then plan to compare findings from the handheld echocardiogram to the patient's standard clinical TTE.

Enrollment: 200 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Adult patients referred for a resting transthoracic echocardiogram.

Exclusion criteria

• Referral for quantitative assessment of valvular heart disease
• Referral for strain imaging
• Referral for measurement of left atrial mechanical function or cardiac resynchronization studies
• Known diagnosis of congenital heart disease, restrictive cardiomyopathy, constrictive pericardial disease, or pulmonary hypertension
• Patients who have received left ventricular assist devices or those who have undergone cardiac transplants