This review provides a structured approach for family physicians to interpret transthoracic echocardiography reports effectively and avoid common misdiagnoses.
May aid family physicians in TTE interpretation; leaves open prospective validation before practice change.
The objective of this review article is to help referring physicians structure their approach to extract clinically useful information from transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) reports. TTE is a reliable and versatile tool for the assessment of cardiac structure, function and path physiology. In clinical practice, TTE results are best interpreted with a view to underlying cardiac physiology and patients’ clinical status. Knowing the inherent limitations of TTE will help referring physicians to interpret results and to avoid misdiagnoses based on false assumptions about the procedure. A structured approach to reading TTE reports can assist physicians in extracting clinically useful information from them, while avoiding common pitfalls.
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A 2010 study studied this question.
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