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Echocardiography at the primary care physician setting: Ready?

In this issue of Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound, is published an interesting article on the value of portable ultrasound for being used in the primary care setting. The authors analyzed ultrasound studies in 175 patients who were performed by trained primary care physicians (PCP)/internists, and also examined by expert on imaging cardiologists. Mean age of the patients was 68 years, and mean body mass index was 30 g/m, meaning that the percentage of obese/overweight people was significant. The goal was to measure agreement for valve heart disease (mitral, tricuspid, and aortic), pericardial effusion, and LV systolic function. Good agreement was found for mitral and tricuspid regurgitation, and for LVEF assessments and pericardial effusion, whereas just modest agreement was observed for aortic stenosis. Thus, this is another piece of information on the value of echocardiographic imaging performed on the initial contact with the patient.