When echo gets in the way: physiological factors affecting Doppler data

Abstract

Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is widely used as a pre-operative screening tool. It can provide extensive information about cardiac function and underlying pathology, which could influence decisions regarding surgery. This patient was referred for TTE as part of pre-op screening, as he had a biological prosthetic aortic valve. This was a rare case where misleading TTE measurements inadvertently led to the patient being referred for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), which delayed non-cardiac surgery.

Keywords

• anaemia
• transcatheter aortic valve replacement
• prosthetic valve
• doppler echocardiography
• cardiac physiology