333 Echocardiography Reporting in Ischaemic Heart Disease and Compliance With European Association Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) Recommendations

Abstract

Standardizing transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) reports is an important measure of quality. Compliance with TTE reporting guidelines for coronary artery disease (CAD) may improve management and follow-up of patients. Reporting standards may not align with current recommendations. To assess institutional compliance with EACVI recommendations for TTE reporting in patients investigated for CAD. 140 TTE reports were audited from the Nepean TTE database. The TTE parameters in reports were compared to the EACVI recommendations for reporting TTE in CAD. Comparisons were made to assess compliance with EACVI mandatory echo parameters and recommended parameters. Overall there was good compliance with representing demographic data, however, poor compliance with documenting heart rate (0%), image quality (16.4%), and machine make (0%). Regarding mandatory reporting of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and LV regional systolic function, the audit highlighted only 37.9% (53/140) and 46.4% (65/14) compliance respectively. There was also poor compliance with assessing right ventricular function with 32.9% (46/140) compliance in reporting TAPSE and S’ prime. Key parameters for diagnosing CAD as specified by the EACVI recommendations were not adequately represented in a significant amount of sampled TTE reports. Some deficits could be accounted for by the limitations of the reporting software. However, these results suggest further education aimed at cardiac physiologists and reporting physicians is needed to improve reporting standards and compliance with EACVI recommendations.