CardioExchange Archive

30% of Echocardiograms Misread: A Milwaukee hospital found that nearly 30% of diagnostic echocardiograms were misread, according to an article by John Fauber in the Journal-Sentinel. An internal review of 235 echocardiograms performed at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center turned up 5 cases in which patients “actually went into the operating room with a faulty diagnosis, although the problem was discovered before surgery was done.” In addition, 18 patients unnecessarily underwent transesophageal echocardiography and 19 patients unnecessarily underwent cardiac catheterization. The hospital is hiring 4 “internationally known experts” to bolster its echo lab and has asked 2 cardiologists to stop reading echoes, Fauber reports. The review was presented at the recent American Society of Echocardiography meeting.

AHA and ACCME Kiss and Make Up: Following a controversial ruling which would have prevented industry employees from making presentations at CME-accredited meetings, including the AHA’s scientific sessions, the AHA and ACCME held “in-depth discussions.” The result is that “there will be no variance from past Scientific Sessions and CME will be available for all presentations within the scientific program,” according to an AHA press release.