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. 2024 Jul 27;25(4):407-409.
doi: 10.1177/17511437241264978. eCollection 2024 Nov.

A survey of United Kingdom intensive care echocardiography provision

Waqas Akhtar  1 , Lenster Marshal  2 , Helen Buglass  3 , Thomas Billyard  4 , Charlotte Goedvolk  2 , Reinout Mildner  5 , Hannah Conway  6 , Hatem Soliman Aboumarie  1 , Ashley Miller  7 , Marcus Peck  8 , Antonio Rubino  9
Affiliations

A survey of United Kingdom intensive care echocardiography provision

Waqas Akhtar et al. J Intensive Care Soc. .

Abstract

This study, conducted under the oversight of National Health Service Blood & Transplant, aimed to evaluate the current feasibility and implementation of both comprehensive and focused donor echocardiography in United Kingdom Intensive Care Units through a nationwide survey. Responses from 95 hospitals across all 4 UK nations showed each ICU had median 4 (IQR 2, 6) personal with 3 (IQR 2, 5) consultants and 1 (IQR 0, 2) registrar trained in focused echocardiography. A comprehensive echocardiogram can be acquired in 48% (n = 46) of hospitals within 6 h during regular working hours. This percentage drops to 11% (n = 10) outside of regular working hours, with 53% (n = 50) indicating this would require more than 24 h. In the case of focused echocardiogram acquisition, 60% (n = 57) of hospitals can obtain it within 6 h during normal working hours. This figure decreases to 20% (n = 19) outside of regular working hours, with 32% (n = 30) indicating that this would require more than 24 h to obtain. Overall, 98% of responding units (n = 93) have point-of-care ultrasound machines (median 2 (IQR 2, 3) machines per ICU) all equipped with echocardiographic capabilities. However, only 52% (n = 49) of respondents indicated have the ability for remote viewing of echocardiogram images.

Keywords: Echo; echocardiography; focused echo.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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