Clinical indications and triaging for adult transthoracic echocardiography: a consensus statement by the British Society of Echocardiography in collaboration with British Heart Valve Society

Abstract

Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is widely utilised within many aspects of clinical practice, as such the demand placed on echocardiography services is ever increasing. In an attempt to provide incremental value for patients and standardise patient care, the British Society of Echocardiography in collaboration with the British Heart Valve Society have devised updated guidance for the indications and triaging of adult TTE requests for TTE services to implement into clinical practice.

Role and application of three-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography in the assessment of left and right ventricular volumes and ejection fraction: a UK nationwide survey

“…It is additionally anticipated that TTE examination timings are and will continue to be balanced against meeting the overwhelming service demands and current UK backlog waiting lists alongside a diminished workforce. This is unfortunately irrespective of the recently published BSE triaging platform documentation [ 30 ]. Perhaps one may postulate a shift in mindset to a notion of “ measurement conservatism and test layering ” to help in easing TTE time constraints, for example, good 3DE datasets could negate repetition in LV and RV size and function measurements by other conventional TTE indices all together.…”

Transthoracic Echocardiographic Assessment of the Heart in Pregnancy—a position statement on behalf of the British Society of Echocardiography and the United Kingdom Maternal Cardiology Society

“…These conditions are important as they are associated with a two-fold increase in the risk of longer-term cardiovascular disease [44,45] and a sixfold increase in the risk of developing hypertension within two years of delivery [46]. In general, the BSE only recommends echocardiography if there is a clinical suspicion of heart failure or coarctation of the aorta (IIC) [43].…”

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“…One of the most common indications for performing a transthoracic echocardiogram in hospital is the assessment of left ventricular ejection fraction. [29] At present, at least in the UK, the process for this involves submitting to the local echo department a digital or paper-based request for a scan, taking the patient to the scanner when a slot becomes available for scanning, having a highly-specialised echo physiologist perform the scan over approximately 45min, and then generate a report which is sent to the requester on paper or digitally (depending on local set-up).…”