A third of echocardiograms waste of time due to poor quality, research suggests

Drs Producoes/Getty Images

By Ella Pickover, PA Media and Daniel Pye

The NHS could speed up diagnosis, reduce repeat appointments and save money by selecting more appropriate heart imaging in some high-risk patients, a study suggests.

A decade-long analysis of echocardiograms carried out at one hospital trust found that a third were of poor quality.

Some of these patients may have be better off being sent straight for contrast echocardiography or alternative imaging instead, the researchers reported in JRSM Cardiovascular Disease.

The team at the University of East Anglia, calculated that of the 70,000 echocardiograms done at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, more than £300,000 might have been wasted on echocardiograms that produce poor results.

Patients with lung disease were twice as likely to have poor quality scans, the study found.

Other patients who were less likely to have clear scans included those with heart failure, inpatients, those with irregular heart rhythms, patients who had undergone previous heart surgery, and patients who had a pacemaker.