title: Limited bedside echocardiography by emergency physicians for diagnosis of diastolic heart failure.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The identification of diastolic heart failure (DHF) is important for determining the prognosis of congestive heart failure patients. This study attempted to determine the accuracy of emergency physicians who performed bedside echocardiography (BECH) in patients with diastolic dysfunction.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three attending emergency physicians underwent 3 h of didactic and 3 h of hands-on training taught by a cardiology specialist for the echocardiographic diagnostic criteria of DHF. Between February and April 2010, the emergency physicians performed BECH for patients presenting with dyspnoea, and echocardiographic views were recorded. Our gold standard for the diagnosis of diastolic dysfunction was the cardiologists' echocardiography report. Results were compared with χ(2) testing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 69 enrolled patients, 51 were diagnosed as having diastolic dysfunction by emergency physicians. The sensitivity of BECH was 89% (77-95) and specificity was 80% (51-95) with 95% CI. The accuracy of the emergency physicians' echocardiographic diagnosis was 87%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  BECH performed by emergency physicians may serve as an objective, rapid, non-invasive tool in the assessment of patients presenting with dyspnoea in ED.
authors: Izmir Ataturk Research and Training Hospital, Emergency Department, 35360 Izmır, Turkey. erolerdenun@yahoo.com
authors: Erol Erden
authors: EE
authors: Unlüer
authors: Serdar
authors: S
authors: Bayata
authors: Nursen
authors: N
authors: Postaci
authors: Murat
authors: M
authors: Yeşil
authors: Özcan
authors: Ö
authors: Yavaşi
authors: Pinar Hanife
authors: PH
authors: Kara
authors: Nergis
authors: N
authors: Vandenberk
authors: Serhat
authors: S
authors: Akay
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000175:diagnosis; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D054144:Heart Failure, Diastolic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems / Q000592:standards*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity