Safety of dobutamine stress echocardiography supervised by registered nurse sonographers.
Dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) is widely used for the diagnosis and evaluation of coronary artery disease. Studies examining the safety of this technique typically have involved DSE supervised by physicians. At the Mayo Clinic, experienced registered nurse (RN) sonographers were trained to perform DSE under the direct supervision of a physician. To prove that the safety of DSE was not compromised with the change in supervision, we examined data from 1035 consecutive outpatient studies: 516 patients were monitored by cardiologists or cardiology fellows (group 1) and 519 were monitored by trained RN sonographers (group 2). Risk factors, history of coronary artery disease, stress parameters, and complication rates were similar in both groups. In group 1, one patient experienced sustained ventricular tachycardia requiring treatment. In group 2, one patient experienced ventricular fibrillation during recovery and was successfully resuscitated. Outpatient DSE is safe when supervised by RN sonographers.
Bremer
M L
ML
Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic and Mayo Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.
Monahan
K H
KH
Stussy
V L
VL
Miller
F A
FA
Seward
J B
JB
Pellikka
P A
PA
D000318:Adrenergic beta-Agonists; D000368:Aged; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004280:Dobutamine; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses
D000318:Adrenergic beta-Agonists; D004280:Dobutamine