Contribution of echocardiography to cardiac diagnosis

In order to quantify information provided by echocardiography for residents in internal medicine and for cardiologists, 150 selected patients were studied by echocardiography, and the ultrasonic diagnosis was compared with the clinical evaluation. Among 144 patients with adequate visualization of the heart, echocardiography provided findings that were totally unexpected to the residents in 13 (9%) and to the cardiologist in 9 (6%) patients. Echocardiography also provided information relevant to the management of the patient in another one-third of the cases. Both the residents and the cardiologist were able to correctly predict the cause of cardiomegaly and the mechanism of heart failure in most patients presenting with these findings. Despite the introduction of cross-sectional echocardiography, the amount of information contributed by echocardiography has not increased since 1978, when a similar study was performed at our institution. This may reflect increased clinical skill among residents, probably due to long-term exposure to echocardiography during their training.