Focused Cardiac Ultrasound to Guide the Diagnosis of Heart Failure in Pregnant Women in India.
Cardiac abnormalities
FoCUS
Focused cardiac ultrasound
Low-resource settings
Obstetrics
Journal
Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography : official publication of the American Society of Echocardiography
ISSN: 1097-6795
Titre abrégé: J Am Soc Echocardiogr
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 8801388
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
12 2022
12 2022
Historique:
received:
02
02
2022
revised:
20
07
2022
accepted:
20
07
2022
pubmed:
8
8
2022
medline:
7
12
2022
entrez:
7
8
2022
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Cardiac complications are a leading cause of maternal death. Cardiac imaging with echocardiography is important for prompt diagnosis, but it is not available in many low-resource settings. The aim of this study was to determine whether focused cardiac ultrasound performed by trained obstetricians and interpreted remotely by experts can identify cardiac abnormalities in pregnant women in low-resource settings. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 301 pregnant and postpartum women recruited from 10 hospitals across three states in India. Twenty-two obstetricians were trained in image acquisition using a portable cardiac ultrasound device following a simplified protocol adapted from focus-assessed transthoracic echocardiography protocol. It included parasternal long-axis, parasternal short-axis, and apical four-chamber views on two-dimensional and color Doppler. Independent image interpretation was performed remotely by two experts, in the United Kingdom and India, using a standard semiquantitative assessment protocol. Interrater agreement between the experts was examined using Cohen's κ. Diagnostic accuracy of the method was examined in a subsample for whom both focused and conventional scans were available. Cardiac abnormalities identified using the focused method included valvular abnormalities (27%), rheumatic heart disease (6.6%), derangements in left ventricular size (4.7%) and function (22%), atrial dilatation (19.5%), and pericardial effusion (30%). There was substantial agreement on the cardiac parameters between the two experts, ranging from 93.6% (κ = 0.84) for left ventricular ejection fraction to 100% (κ = 1) for valvular disease. Image quality was graded as good in 79% of parasternal long-axis, 77% of parasternal short-axis and 64% of apical four-chamber views. The chance-corrected κ coefficients indicated fair to moderate agreement (κ = 0.28-0.51) for the image quality parameters. There was good agreement on diagnosis between the focused method and standard echocardiography (78% agreement), compared in 36 participants. The focused method accurately identified cardiac abnormalities in pregnant women and could be used for screening cardiac problems in obstetric settings.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
Cardiac complications are a leading cause of maternal death. Cardiac imaging with echocardiography is important for prompt diagnosis, but it is not available in many low-resource settings. The aim of this study was to determine whether focused cardiac ultrasound performed by trained obstetricians and interpreted remotely by experts can identify cardiac abnormalities in pregnant women in low-resource settings.
METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted among 301 pregnant and postpartum women recruited from 10 hospitals across three states in India. Twenty-two obstetricians were trained in image acquisition using a portable cardiac ultrasound device following a simplified protocol adapted from focus-assessed transthoracic echocardiography protocol. It included parasternal long-axis, parasternal short-axis, and apical four-chamber views on two-dimensional and color Doppler. Independent image interpretation was performed remotely by two experts, in the United Kingdom and India, using a standard semiquantitative assessment protocol. Interrater agreement between the experts was examined using Cohen's κ. Diagnostic accuracy of the method was examined in a subsample for whom both focused and conventional scans were available.
RESULTS
Cardiac abnormalities identified using the focused method included valvular abnormalities (27%), rheumatic heart disease (6.6%), derangements in left ventricular size (4.7%) and function (22%), atrial dilatation (19.5%), and pericardial effusion (30%). There was substantial agreement on the cardiac parameters between the two experts, ranging from 93.6% (κ = 0.84) for left ventricular ejection fraction to 100% (κ = 1) for valvular disease. Image quality was graded as good in 79% of parasternal long-axis, 77% of parasternal short-axis and 64% of apical four-chamber views. The chance-corrected κ coefficients indicated fair to moderate agreement (κ = 0.28-0.51) for the image quality parameters. There was good agreement on diagnosis between the focused method and standard echocardiography (78% agreement), compared in 36 participants.
CONCLUSIONS
The focused method accurately identified cardiac abnormalities in pregnant women and could be used for screening cardiac problems in obstetric settings.
Identifiants
pubmed: 35934263
pii: S0894-7317(22)00389-3
doi: 10.1016/j.echo.2022.07.014
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
1281-1294Subventions
Organisme : British Heart Foundation
ID : CH/1996001/9454
Pays : United Kingdom
Organisme : Medical Research Council
ID : MR/W003686/1
Pays : United Kingdom
Organisme : Medical Research Council
ID : MR/P022030/1
Pays : United Kingdom
Commentaires et corrections
Type : CommentIn
Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2022 American Society of Echocardiography. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.