• Yonatan Y Greenstein, Thomas J Martin, Linda Rolnitzky, Kevin Felner, and Brian Kaufman.
• From the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine (Y.Y.G., T.J.M., K.F., B.K.), Department of Medicine, New York University Medical Center; New York Harbor VA Hospital (KF, BK, TJM); and Division of Biostatistics (L.R.), New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY.
• Simul Healthc. 2015 Aug 1; 10 (4): 193-9; quiz 199-201.

IntroductionGoal-directed echocardiography (GDE) is used to answer specific clinical questions that provide invaluable information to physicians managing a hemodynamically unstable patient. We studied perception and ability of house staff previously trained in GDE to accurately diagnose common causes of cardiac arrest during simulated advanced cardiac life support (ACLS); we compared their results with those of expert echocardiographers.MethodsEleven pulmonary and critical care medicine fellows, 7 emergency medicine residents, and 5 cardiologists board certified in echocardiography were enrolled. Baseline ability to acquire 4 transthoracic echocardiography views was assessed, and participants were exposed to 6 simulated cardiac arrests and were asked to perform a GDE during ACLS. House staff performance was compared with the performance of 5 expert echocardiographers.ResultsAverage baseline and scenario views by house staff were of good or excellent quality 89% and 83% of the time, respectively. Expert average baseline and scenario views were always of good or excellent quality. House staff and experts made the correct diagnosis in 68% and 77% of cases, respectively. On average, participants required 1.5 pulse checks to make the correct diagnosis. Of house staff, 94% perceived this study as an accurate assessment of ability.ConclusionsIn an ACLS-compliant manner, house staff are capable of diagnosing management-altering pathologies the majority of the time, and they reach similar diagnostic conclusions in the same amount of time as expert echocardiographers in a simulated cardiac arrest scenario.

20 keywords...

hide…