Service is valuable for evaluating murmurs too

BMJ 1995;311:326 (29 July)

Letters

Service is valuable for evaluating murmurs too

EDITOR,--For the past 10 months we have been offering generalpractitioners in the Brighton area an open access echocardiographyservice similar to those in Edinburgh¹ and Nottingham.² Oursdiffers principally in that we encourage referral for the evaluationof murmurs as well as heart failure.

In total, 106 patients (43 male, 63 female), have been referred:49 with heart failure with or without murmurs (mean age 72),46 with murmurs alone (mean age 55), and 11 for other reasons.In those with murmurs alone no abnormality was found in 25 andwe were able to reassure the patients and general practitionersand avoid unnecessary referral to a cardiologist. Not surprisingly,given the selection criteria for referral, we found a higherincidence of valve disease than that reported by Francis andcolleagues.¹ Overall eight patients had appreciable aortic stenosis(which was severe in two cases, with a gradient >70 mm Hg).. . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Open access echocardiography in management of heart failure in the community: C M Francis, L Caruana, P Kearney, M Love, G R Sutherland, I R Starkey, T R D Shaw, and J J V McMurray
BMJ 1995 310: 634-636. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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