title: Reproducibility of transesophageal echocardiography in evaluating aortic atheroma in stroke patients.
abstract: Although transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is a well-established tool in delineating the cardiac and aortic sources of emboli in stroke patients, its reproducibility in detecting aortic atherosclerosis (AA) that may lead to stroke is not well documented. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the inter- and intra-observer agreement in diagnosing AA based on the TEE study. During the study period, 2 echocardiographers read 32 TEE studies performed on a group of stroke patients. The AA was estimated by measuring the largest atheroma thickness in millimeters (mm). The intra-observers and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were 0.97 and 0.85, respectively, for the 2 TEE observers. The inter-rater ICC coefficient between TEE readers was 0.91. In conclusion, TEE detected AA and defined high proportions of the morphological characteristics of atheroma with good reproducibility among inter and intra-observers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Case Western Reserve University, Case Medical Center, and Louis Stoke Cleveland VA Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. ozaidat@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Osama O
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Zaidat
authors.forename: Jose I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Suarez
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hedrick
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Redline
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schluchter
authors.forename: Dennis M D
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Landis
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hoit
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001018:Aortic Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis