Williams Jake, Rawcliffe Megan, Mills Mark T, Warriner David R
Internal Medicine Trainee.
Cardiology Registrar and Academic Clinical Fellow, University of Sheffield.
Br J Cardiol. 2023 Oct 10;30(4):32. doi: 10.5837/bjc.2023.032. eCollection 2023.
Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is used to assess for evidence of infective endocarditis (IE). Inappropriate patient selection leads to significant burden on healthcare services. We aimed to assess effectiveness of cardiology consultant vetting of TTE requests for suspected IE in reduction of unnecessary scans. All inpatient TTE requests querying IE over a six-month period were vetted. Clinical information and pathology results were reviewed, and requests were either accepted, deferred, or rejected. A total of 103 patients had TTE requested: 39 (38%) were accepted for scan; four cases of IE were confirmed on TTE. There were 62% of patient requests rejected and not scanned, and no cases of IE subsequently diagnosed. Thus, consultant vetting of TTE requests for suspected IE is an effective way to safely reduce unnecessary scans and enables cost-effective streamlining of echocardiography services.
经胸超声心动图（TTE）用于评估感染性心内膜炎（IE）的证据。不恰当的患者选择会给医疗服务带来巨大负担。我们旨在评估心脏病学顾问对疑似IE的TTE检查申请进行审核在减少不必要扫描方面的有效性。对六个月内所有查询IE的住院患者TTE检查申请进行了审核。审查了临床信息和病理结果，申请要么被接受、延期，要么被拒绝。总共103例患者被要求进行TTE检查：39例（38%）被接受进行扫描；TTE检查确诊了4例IE。62%的患者申请被拒绝且未进行扫描，随后也没有诊断出IE病例。因此，对疑似IE的TTE检查申请进行顾问审核是安全减少不必要扫描并实现超声心动图服务成本效益优化的有效方法。
