Clinical effectiveness of a sonographer-led, cardiologist-interpreted stress echocardiography service in the rapid access stable chest pain clinic.

To assess the clinical effectiveness of a sonographer-led, cardiologist-interpreted stress echocardiography (SE) service in a rapid access stable chest pain clinic (RACPC) setting. Baseline data was collected prospectively on 768 consecutive patients, referred from the RACPC, who underwent SE between May 2014 and May 2015. Retrospective analysis was performed on follow-up data for outcomes. Among 768 patients (mean age 58 years, 57.8% males) with a mean pre-test probability of coronary artery disease (CAD) of 31%, 675 (88%) underwent SE on the same day as the RACPC consultation. Diagnostic tests were obtained in 749 (97.5%) cases with 62 (8.1%) demonstrating inducible ischemia. Coronary angiography was performed in 61 patients of whom 54 demonstrated flow-limiting CAD (positive predictive value: 88.5%). There was no occurrence of serious adverse events. During a mean follow-up period of 2.5 years, 20 first cardiac events were recorded, of which annualised events in the normal SE group were 0.64% versus 5.8% in patients with an abnormal SE (log rank p < 0.001). Sonographer-led SE interpreted by a cardiologist is feasible, safe and efficacious. It impacted on the management of patients with appropriate outcomes and may be a cost-efficient and safer alternative to other non-invasive imaging modalities in the RACPC setting.

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