Key result
TTE confirms ~70% of clinical cardiovascular diagnoses with high sensitivity for HF and valvular disease.
Why the study?
The authors aimed to review clinical indications for transthoracic echocardiography and the confirmation rate of cardiovascular diseases at a specialist cardiac clinic in Ghana.
Cross-Sectional (n=594)
No
Transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated a high confirmation rate (70.3%) for suspected cardiovascular diseases in a Ghanaian outpatient clinic, emphasizing its utility in resource-limited settings.
Supports TTE confirmation of CVD in outpatients; leaves open prospective validation before changing practice in resource-limited settings.
Background: Transthoracic echocardiography is a very helpful noninvasive cardiovascular imaging technique for the diagnosis and risk stratification in the management of patients with cardiovascular diseases. We aimed to review the clinical indications for transthoracic echocardiography and the confirmation rate of cardiovascular diseases by echocardiography at a specialist cardiac clinic in Ghana. Methods: Using a cross-sectional study design, the echocardiography reports of all patients above the age of 15 who were assessed at the clinic were analyzed. Data on patient demographics, clinical history, clinical indication for echocardiography, and the echocardiographic findings were analyzed using version 25.0 of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: A total of 594 participants were studied. The age range of participants was 15-96 years, with a mean (± standard deviation) age of 53.72 (± 17.25) years. There were more females (50.17%) than males (49.83%). Most (54.21%) of the participants had echocardiography for cardiac evaluation. Other indications included hypertension/hypertensive heart disease (HHD) (n = 131; 22.06%), heart failure (n = 69; 11.62%), chest pains (n = 12; 2.02%), and valvular heart disease (VHD) (n = 11; 1.85%). Three hundred and eight-nine (70.30%) of the participants had their clinical diagnoses confirmed by echocardiography; echocardiographic confirmation rates for heart failure, VHD, and HHD were 92.75%, 90.91%, and 88.54%, respectively. Conclusion: Echocardiography showed high confirmation rates for our patients with heart failure, VHD, and HHD. Prompt usage of this noninvasive cardiovascular imaging for the initial evaluation of patients with cardiovascular diseases is highly recommended.
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Wiafe et al. (2023) conducted a cross-sectional in Cardiovascular diseases (n=594). Transthoracic echocardiography was evaluated on Confirmation rate of clinical diagnoses by echocardiography. Transthoracic echocardiography confirmed clinical cardiovascular diagnoses in 70.30% of patients, demonstrating high diagnostic sensitivity for heart failure, valvular heart disease, and hypertensive heart disease.
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