Safety of stress echocardiography supervised by registered nurses: results of a 2-year audit of 15,404 patients.

Background: Stress echocardiography has traditionally been performed under the supervision of physicians. In the last decade, at some institutions, specially trained registered nurses have taken on the task of directly supervising and conducting these stress tests with appropriate physician involvement and assistance.

Methods: The safety of 15,404 stress echocardiograms that were performed under the direct supervision of registered nurses during a recent 2-year period was evaluated.

The role of the nurse in clinical echocardiography.

Echocardiography plays an important role in the practice of clinical cardiology. As echocardiographic practice has evolved, the addition of nursing personnel to the echocardiography team has enhanced the assessment and diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. Specifically, nurses monitor patients during transesophageal and stress examinations and establish intravenous access for sonicated saline, microsphere contrast, and medication administration.

Diastolic stress echocardiography: a novel noninvasive diagnostic test for diastolic dysfunction using supine bicycle exercise Doppler echocardiography.

Left ventricular filling pressures can be estimated reliably by combining mitral inflow early diastolic velocity (E) and annulus velocity (E'). An increased E/E' ratio reflects elevated filling pressures and may be useful in assessing an abnormal increase in filling pressures for patients with diastolic dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of supine bicycle exercise Doppler echocardiography for assessing left ventricular diastolic pressure during exercise.