Diagnostic accuracy of transesophageal echocardiography during cardiopulmonary resuscitation

We sought to establish the diagnostic accuracy of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) during cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Because of its bedside diagnostic capabilities, excellent cardiac images and lack of interference with resuscitation efforts, TEE is ideally suited to determine the cause of a circulatory arrest that is not due to severe arrhythmia. However, the diagnostic accuracy of TEE during resuscitation is unknown.

TEE was performed in patients with prolonged circulatory arrest. The TEE diagnoses were compared with diagnoses from autopsy, surgery and clinical follow-up.

Of the 48 study patients (29 male, 19 female, mean age +/- SD 61 +/- 20 years), 28 had an in-hospital cardiac arrest and 20 an out-of-hospital onset of arrest. Forty-four patients eventually died; four survived to discharge. The diagnoses made with TEE were cardiac tamponade (n = 6), myocardial infarction (n = 21), pulmonary embolism (n = 6), ruptured aorta (n = 1), aortic dissection (n = 4), papillary muscle rupture (n = 1), other diagnosis (n = 2) and absence of structural cardiac abnormalities (n = 7). A definite diagnosis from a reference standard was available in 31 patients. The TEE diagnosis was confirmed in 27 of the 31-by postmortem examination (n = 19), operation (n = 2), angiography (n = 2) or clinical course (n = 4). In the other four patients the TEE diagnosis proved incorrect by postmortem examination. The sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value of TEE were 93%, 50% and 87%, respectively. In 15 patients (31%), major therapeutic decisions were based on TEE findings.

TEE can reliably establish the cause of a circulatory arrest during cardiopulmonary resuscitation.