Repeated echocardiography after the diagnosis of endocarditis: too much of a good thing?
| Autor: | Vance G. Fowler, C H Cabell |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2004 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
business.industry Disease Endocarditis Bacterial Cardiovascular Medicine medicine.disease Transoesophageal echocardiography Health Services Misuse Occult Clinical Practice body regions Echocardiography Infective endocarditis medicine Lethal infection Endocarditis Humans In patient Radiology Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine business |
| Zdroj: | Heart (British Cardiac Society). 90(9) |
| ISSN: | 1468-201X |
| Popis: | Although echocardiography is seen as the technology of choice for the diagnosis of infective endocarditis, it is being increasingly overused in clinical scenarios with a low pre-test probability of disease Since the advent of two dimensional transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) in the 1970s and high frequency transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) imaging in the 1980s, echocardiography has become a standard diagnostic tool in patients with suspected infective endocarditis (IE). It is now well established that echocardiography is a technology of choice for the diagnosis of IE,1 and that echocardiography can detect cardiac involvement in a significant proportion of patients with clinically occult IE.2,3 Because IE is a lethal infection that can be difficult to diagnose clinically, clinicians who care for patients at risk for IE often have a low threshold for employing echocardiography. This clinical practice has several implications. While echocardiography can often provide a rapid diagnosis, its optimal use is predicated on the appropriate pre-test probability of disease.4,5 By contrast, echocardiography is increasingly overused in clinical scenarios with a low (< 2–3%) pre-test probability of disease, where its diagnostic utility diminishes.6,7 … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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