"Echocardiography in Nigeria: use, problems, reproducibility and potentials".
BACKGROUND
Although echocardiography is a useful and cost-effective technique for the detection of morphological and functional cardiac abnormalities, it has a main limitation in its subjectivity. Therefore the aim of the present study was to assess the intra-observer reproducibility and validity of 2-dimensional guided M-mode echo measurements at a Nigerian metropolitan Hospital.


METHODS
Standard echocardiographic examination was performed on twenty randomly selected patients (11 men and 9 women) aged 59.8 +/- 12.6 years in two different sessions seven days apart.


RESULTS
A good degree of intraobserver agreement was observed between test 1 and test 2. The correlation coefficient between the first and second studies ranged between 0.60 and 0.96; measurement errors between 0.050 and 0.205.


CONCLUSIONS
We would conclude that 2-dimensional guided M-mode measurements at echocardiography performed at our centre are reproducible with low intra-observer variability.
Department of Medicine, Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, PMB 3031 Abeokuta, Nigeria. osogah56156@yahoo.com
Okechukwu S
OS
Ogah
Ademola T
AT
Adebanjo
Adedeji S
AS
Otukoya
Tarwanger J
TJ
Jagusa
D000328:Adult; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D015588:Observer Variation; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity