Assessment of Primary Care Physicians' Use of a Pocket Ultrasound DeviceTM to Measure Left Ventricular Mass in @entity1 with XXXX .

@entity1 @entity4346 @entity101
PURPOSE: @entity4346 ( @entity4346 ) is common in primary care and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Treatment of underlying @entity101 can reverse @entity4346 and eliminate the associated risks. Electrocardiography is widely available and commonly used to screen @entity101 @entity1 for @entity4346 , but it is limited by low sensitivity. Limited echocardiographic measurement of the left ventricle is a method for screening with improved sensitivity; however, it is not currently widely used in the primary care setting. This study attempts to test the accuracy of primary care physicians' (PCPs) measurements of the left ventricle using a pocket-sized ultrasound (pUS) device after a brief training session. METHODS: This study was performed in an outpatient cardiology clinic by 3 family medicine residents and 1 family medicine faculty member after a 4-hour training session. Measurements of the left ventricle were made by PCPs using a pUS device; these measurements were compared with cardiologists' measurements from images obtained by echocardiography technicians. Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) was calculated based on these measurements and then compared between groups. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference between the mean LVMI calculations in the 2 groups. The agreement in measurements between the groups, however, showed high variability. This was manifested by the low sensitivity (70%) and specificity (76%) of PCPs in the detection of @entity4346 . CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that limited echocardiography for the detection of @entity4346 performed by PCPs at the point of care was feasible. Future studies are needed to determine the ideal training and experience necessary to yield competency.
