Time to shape up - assessment and reporting standards for data quality in clinical research using echocardiographic...

Advanced echocardiography techniques such as speckle tracking imaging are sensitive diagnostic tools frequently used in various clinical and scientific scenarios. Importantly, imperfect reproducibility and dependence of post-processing algorithms on echocardiographic image quality are potential methodological limitations. Therefore, meticulous assessment of data quality and detailed reporting of study methodology, sample specifics, technical peculiarities and measurement conditions are crucial. Unfortunately, despite the recognized importance of this, there is still no broadly accepted standard for assessing the quality of echocardiographic images in clinical research reports. This article quintessentially highlights important shortcomings of data quality assessment and methodological study design, commonly occurring in clinical research reports using advanced echocardiography techniques. Finally, suggestions are made as to how researchers, scientific communities and biomedical journals can contribute to the ever-lasting process of improving the quality of clinical research in cardiovascular imaging.