The impact of focused echocardiography using the Focused Intensive Care Echo protocol on the management of critically ill patients, and comparison with full echocardiographic studies by BSE-accredited sonographers

Abstract

Introduction Focused echocardiography is widely used to assist clinical decision-making in critically ill patients. In the UK, the Focused Intensive Care Echo protocol is recommended by the Intensive Care Society to ensure consistency of approach and guarantee training standards. Concerns remain about the reliability of information attained by non-expert clinicians in focused echocardiography, particularly when this is used to alter clinical management. Methods A prospective, observational evaluation of 60 consecutive patients undergoing Focused Intensive Care Echo studies in a single ICU. Results A complete Focused Intensive Care Echo study was possible in 43/60 scans (72%) and new diagnostic information obtained following 41/60 scans (68%), which lead to a change of clinical management in 28/60 (47%) of cases. In 24/60 (40%) of cases, a full transthoracic study was subsequently undertaken by a fully accredited sonographer. There were no cases where the results from the full study contradicted those from the limited Focused Intensive Care Echo study; additional diagnostic information was attained following 68% of full studies. Conclusion Focused echocardiography using the Focused Intensive Care Echo protocol is feasible and clinically useful in a high proportion of ICU patients. However, many still require additional expert echocardiographic assessment. Focused echocardiography delivered by non-experts is clinically useful in this setting but its limitations must be understood and access to expert assessment should be available.