Clinical Indications for Echocardiography

Aortic stenosis

“…Arrange cardiovascular assessment within six weeks for all patients who report exertional symptoms (dyspnoea or chest pain) and have an audible cardiac murmur,252627 and for patients with exertional symptoms but seemingly only moderate aortic stenosis according to a transthoracic echocardiogram28…”

“…Perform cardiac auscultation in all patients presenting with chest pain, breathlessness, presyncope, syncope, palpitations, and/or unexplained functional deterioration (such as progressive deterioration in exercise tolerance or day-to-day activity) 2526. Some clinical findings suggestive of severe aortic stenosis are summarised in table 2.…”

“…Transthoracic echocardiography has a high sensitivity (92%) and specificity (99%) for severe aortic stenosis (fig 3). 31 Consider it for all patients who report cardiac or respiratory symptoms associated with an audible murmur26 to ascertain the diagnosis and to assess for severity (box 2), left ventricular function, and any other valvular lesions. For patients with mild aortic stenosis, arrange biennial echocardiograms to monitor their valve function 32…”