[Early clinical results with transnasal esophageal echocardiography]

Currently undergoing a clinical trial a new miniaturized monoplane ultrasound probe potentially enhances the practicability of perioperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) without loss of echocardiographic quality.

In the present prospective study, the nasally inserted miniaturized TEE probe was tested in 12 ventilated patients and compared with a conventional TEE probe. Echocardiographic quality was tested by two independent investigators by analyzing the percentage of the endocardium contour detection (< 50%, 50-75%, 75-100%) in the left ventricular short- and long-axis views.

In 11 patients, more than 50% of endocardium were visualized continuously with both probes. Although the nasal TEE probe was inferior to conventional TEE in detecting lateral endocardium, automated endocardium detection compared well with both methods. Inter- and intraobserver variability in manual measurements of the left ventricular cross-sectional area was below 5% on average and differed non-significantly with regard to the method. In 2 patients, continuous monitoring was aggravated by repeated loss of contact between the miniaturized TEE probe and mucosa.

In comparison with conventional TEE, the miniaturized TEE probe provides practicability advantages without significant loss of information for cardiovascular monitoring.