Transesophageal Echocardiography Interpretation: A Comparative Analysis Between Cardiac Anesthesiologists and Primary Echocardiographers

UNLABELLED: Diagnostic interpretation of intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) examinations may vary, particularly when the echocardiographer is also the anesthesiologist. We therefore evaluated the concordance of TEE interpretation as part of a process of continuous quality improvement (CQI). Ten cardiac anesthesiologists participating in a CQI program conducted 154 comprehensive TEE examinations, each consisting of 16 major fields describing cardiac anatomy and function. These examinations were subsequently interpreted off-line by two primary echocardiographers (a radiologist and a cardiologist). Agreement was assessed using the kappa coefficient and percent agreement. Overall kappa and percent agreement were 0.58 and 83% for anesthesiologists versus radiologist, 0.57 and 80% for anesthesiologists versus cardiologist, and 0.60 and 82% for radiologist versus cardiologist. Anesthesiologists with longer than 5 yr of TEE experience had higher levels of agreement with the radiologist when assessing the aorta, right atrium, pulmonary vein flow, transmitral flow, and fractional area change. Cardiac anesthesiologists supported by a CQI program interpret TEE examinations at a level comparable with physicians whose primary practice is echocardiography. Thus, the anesthesiologist and the intraoperative echocardiographer need not be mutually exclusive. IMPLICATIONS: Interpretation of intraoperative transesophageal echocardiograms can be reliably performed by cardiac anesthesiologists.