Transthoracic echocardiography is an essential tool in the diagnosis, assessment, and management of paediatric and adult populations with suspected or confirmed congenital heart disease. Congenital echocardiography is highly operator-dependent, requiring advanced technical acquisition and interpretative skill levels. This document is designed to complement previous congenital echocardiography literature by providing detailed practical echocardiography imaging guidance on sequential segmental analysis, and is intended for implementation predominantly, but not exclusively, within adult congenital heart disease settings. It encompasses the recommended dataset to be performed and is structured in the preferred order for a complete anatomical and functional sequential segmental congenital echocardiogram. It is recommended that this level of study be performed at least once on all patients being assessed by a specialist congenital cardiology service. This document will be supplemented by a series of practical pathology specific congenital echocardiography guidelines. Collectively, these will provide structure and standardisation to image acquisition and reporting, to ensure that all important information is collected and interpreted appropriately.

Pregnancy is a dynamic process associated with profound hormonally mediated haemodynamic changes which result in structural and functional adaptations in the cardiovascular system. An understanding of the myocardial adaptations is important for echocardiographers and clinicians undertaking or interpreting echocardiograms on pregnant and post-partum women. This guideline, on behalf of the British Society of Echocardiography and United Kingdom Maternal Cardiology Society, reviews the expected echocardiographic findings in normal pregnancy and in different cardiac disease states, as well as echocardiographic signs of decompensation. It aims to lay out a structure for echocardiographic scanning and surveillance during and after pregnancy as well as suggesting practical advice on scanning pregnant women.

No abstract

Background/Introduction The 2015 ESC endocarditis guidelines recommend that a multi-disciplinary endocarditis team should be involved in caring for patients with endocarditis. This approach recognises the heterogeneity of infective endocarditis, and the difficulty in distinguishing endocarditis from other infective and non-infective diseases. Purpose This study looks at suspected cases of infective endocarditis discussed at the endocarditis MDT, discrepancies between MDT outcome and the modified Duke's criteria in diagnosing endocarditis, and number of referrals to MDT over time. Methods Patients were identified by review of MDT outcome forms. Demographic data, predisposing conditions, imaging findings, microbiology results and final diagnosis were identified by reviewing MDT forms and electronic charts. Results 234 patients were identified from MDT outcome forms. 118 (50.4%) patients were over 65, 165 (70.5%) were male, and 65 (27.8%) had previous valve surgery. Crosstabulation of MDT decision against outcome by modified Duke's criteria are seen in Table 1. The endocarditis team identified 7 patients with definite or possible endocarditis who were excluded by applying the modified Duke's criteria. 1 of these patients required aortic valve replacement. 2 patients with disseminated Staphylococcal infections without endocarditis were classed as definite endocarditis by the modified Duke's criteria. Referral data and outcomes are included in Figure 1. Conclusions The endocarditis team can be used to improve the sensitivity and specificity of the modified Duke's criteria. As the endocarditis team became established the volume of referrals has increased, along with the number of patients who have alternate diagnoses. Practitioners should bear this in mind when establishing endocarditis teams. Figure 1. Referrals over time by outcome Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None

No abstract