Routine Use of Contrast on Admission Transthoracic Echocardiography for Heart Failure Reduces the Rate of Repeat Echocardiography during Index Admission.

Background: The authors retrospectively evaluated the impact of ultrasound enhancing agent (UEA) use in the first transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) examination, regardless of baseline image quality, on the number of repeat TTEs and length of stay (LOS) during a heart failure (HF) admission.

Methods: There were 9,115 HF admissions associated with admission TTE examinations over a 4-year period (5,337 men; mean age, 67.6 ± 15.