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The measurement of the left ventricle ejection fraction by a bedside FoCUS examination

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Abstract

The use of point-of-care ultrasound is rapidly increasing in medical practice. This study aims to evaluate the left ventricle systolic function by the bedside focus cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS). We consecutively enrolled n.59 patients of the Emergency Medicine Unit of S. Andrea Hospital. Every patient received a bedside FoCUS examination to estimate the left ventricle (LV) ejection fraction (EF); the LV EF measurements were compared with those obtained by standard echocardiography (as gold standard). The LV EF obtained by the bedside FoCUS examination and the standard echocardiography, resulted, respectively: 50.2 ± 15.1% (by the Quinones equation), 39.5 + 12.0% (by the Lvivo app) and 53.7 + 11.1% (by the standard echocardiography). The correlations between the bedside FoCUS EF measurements versus standard echocardiography were statistically significant: r =  + 0.694 p < 1.9 × 10–6 (Quinones equation, Bland–Altman analysis mean = − 2.3%) and r =  + 0.571 p < 0.01 (Lvivo app, Bland–Altman analysis mean = − 13.3%). In conclusion, the present study showed a high accuracy of the bedside FoCUS EF evaluations, which may support the diagnosis of the heart failure in an emergency setting without delaying. The EF measurements by the operational method are more precise than those obtained by the unselected images of the software application.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Emergency Medicine Unit, and, in particular, Rosalba Benvenuto, Massimiliano Rocchietti March, Laura Tafaro and Alberto Sentimentale, for their support in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Emergency Medicine Unit, S. Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Via di Grottarossa 1035, 00189, Rome, Italy

    Antonio Martocchia, Cinzia Piccoli, Michele Fortunato Notarangelo & Paolo Martelletti

  2. Radiology Unit, S. Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Daniela Sergi

  3. Heart Failure Unit, Clinical and Molecular Medicine Department, S. Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Beata Ostrowska & Luciano De Biase

  4. Clinical and Molecular Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, S. Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Carmine Savoia

  5. Internal Medicine Unit, S. Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Giorgio Sesti

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  1. Antonio Martocchia
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  2. Cinzia Piccoli
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  3. Michele Fortunato Notarangelo
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  4. Daniela Sergi
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  5. Beata Ostrowska
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  6. Paolo Martelletti
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  7. Carmine Savoia
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  8. Luciano De Biase
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  9. Giorgio Sesti
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Correspondence to Antonio Martocchia.

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All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standard of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

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Martocchia, A., Piccoli, C., Notarangelo, M.F. et al. The measurement of the left ventricle ejection fraction by a bedside FoCUS examination. Intern Emerg Med 18, 2253–2259 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-023-03414-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-023-03414-5

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