Background: In 2014, the ACC/AHA released guidelines regarding indications for preoperative transthoracic echocardiogram (pre-op TTE) in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. Studies indicate that the ordering of pre-op TTE in noncardiac surgery is not consistent with the ACC/AHA guidelines. Some studies suggest the pre-op TTE have a significant impact on management, while others have demonstrated low cardiac [...]

Background: Guidelines recommend in-hospital evaluation with cardiac monitoring and transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) to assess syncope in patients that are considered high-risk for major adverse cardiovascular events. We sought to identify variables associated with performing TTE in patients presenting with syncope. Methods: We abstracted demographic and clinical data from all patients evaluated for syncope at the [...]

Background: Echocardiography is an essential evaluation in the diagnosis of infectious endocarditis (IE). Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is a portable study that is widely available and non-invasive. Though transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is traditionally known for higher sensitivity and specificity, it is speculated that improvements in modern TTE imaging could produce higher diagnostic yield than previously thought. [...]

Case Presentation: A 76 year-old African American female with no past medical history presented with new onset shortness of breath and substernal chest pressure of three week duration. She noted that she had been previously healthy without any issues prior to this incident. On presentation, the patient was afebrile and normotensive (125/76) but tachycardic (110 [...]

Case Presentation: A 36 years old female with past medical history of IV drug abuse, presented with dyspnea, nasal congestion, tactile disturbances, diarrhea, body aches and generalized weakness for 1 day. She was recently treated for tricuspid valve endocarditis. A Transthoracic Echocardiogram (TTE) obtained at that time showed ejection fraction (EF) of 55-60%. On presentation, [...]

Case Presentation: A 49-year-old male presented with progressive lower extremity edema, exertional dyspnea and orthopnea for three weeks. Past medical history significant for non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, systolic heart failure and moderate aortic regurgitation (AR) diagnosed one year ago. Physical exam was significant for jugular vein distention, bibasilar crackles, loud 3/6 diastolic murmur in the aortic area [...]

Case Presentation: The patient is a 64-year-old male, BMI 35.6 kg/m2, with a history of diabetes mellitus II, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and recent CAD after syncope, who was under going CABG. A cardiac tumor was incidentally found intraoperatively (Figure 1). The pre-operative transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) was negative for signs of tumor (Figure 2), however, when it [...]