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Hemodynamic instability in critically ill patients requires rapid evaluation and management. Early cardiac assessment provides essential information for treatment. Prior studies have shown that limited transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), focused on left ventricular function and significant pericardial effusions, is fast and helpful during resuscitation. These authors compared acquisition and interpretation of TTE images by intensivists with acquisition by sonographers and interpretation by echocardiographers.
Forty-four critically ill patients underwent formal TTE, followed within 2 hours by bedside TTE performed by one of four intensivists who had received 6 hours of TTE training. Intensivists correctly differentiated normal from abnormal…