Guidelines for triaging and clinical indications for adult transthoracic echocardiography

Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is a basic imaging and functional diagnostic method in cardiology with a wide scope of cardiac diagnoses and monitoring cardiac treatment. In addition to cardiology, the need in the clinical practice of other branches of clinical medicine is growing. Very wide application and nonstandardized referral criteria have led to a high demand for echocardiography. At the same time, there is a growing disproportion in the ratio of unjustified requirements and clear clinical benefits for the patient from timely echocardiographic diagnostics. This is a problem of a global character, and international echocardiographic societies, in cooperation with national health policies, have developed guidelines for triage and indication for echocardiographic examinations (1, 2, 3). In addition to the large number of requests, there is also a noticeable disproportion in the number of requests and available resources for echocardiographic diagnostics in Croatia. In order to provide needed and timely health care, there is a need to standardize echocardiographic availability based on defined criteria for professional screening and indicating examinations as well as determining professionally acceptable time frames of echocardiographic examination. The Working Group for Echocardiography of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia and the Working Group for Echocardiography and Imaging Modalities of the Croatian Cardiac Society have proposed guidelines for indications and triage of applications for TTE in adults in cooperation with the Croatian Cardiac Society, in accordance with the current guidelines of the European Echocardiographic Society and modern cardiology practice, taking into account national health care database. These guidelines are applicable at all levels of health care and include the most common conditions and diagnoses for which patients are referred for this examination.