Basic echo book(s).

[TrustMe]

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I'm a anesthesia trained ICU fellow and I am trying to learn to perform/interpret basic TTE exams for focused bedside evaluations in the ICU. What are some good books to begin with to learn some basic skills?

 

[TrustMe]

Thanks for the help. I'll check those out. Or I guess I'll just start calling the cardiology fellow at 2am for stat echo's if I have a question in a decompensating patient instead of performing a quick/focused bedside exam myself just to look at function and filling.

 

[P Diddy]

Thanks for the help. I'll check those out. Or I guess I'll just start calling the cardiology fellow at 2am for stat echo's if I have a question in a decompensating patient instead of performing a quick/focused bedside exam myself just to look at function and filling.

That will be more accurate than you performing and interpreting the echo.

p diddy

 

[dragonfly99]

A lot of cardiology fellows use Oh's book, the Echo Manual.
However, there aren't really many books that I know of that will show you how to do an echo. It's actually not as easy as people think, and it basically needs to be taught by having people do an echo with someone who knows how...something that even a lot of cardiology fellowships don't do very well.

Reading an echo isn't quite as easy as you'd think either, although if you are just looking to rule out pericardial effusion and wall motion stuff, not as hard as really learning to "read" one.

Also I don't think you needed to be so snarky. There aren't many people on the cardiology forum. I wouldn't go on the anesthesia forum and then mouth off because someone didn't answer my questions about some airway issue or intubation ASAP...

 

[TrustMe]

Sorry, no offense intended. Just figured that after 250+ views and no replies that I was getting the cold shoulder. Thanks for the note on the books, though. I'm just wanting to learn how to acquire some basic views. I feel comfortable with performing a basic TEE exam and interpretation (did many during residency) but have not had the opportunity yet to learn more about TTE exams.

 

[J-Rad]

Agree with everything DF said including about the unnecessary douchiness-247 of those views may have been medical students.

See if you can hang out with some decent cardiac sonographers and get your hand on the probe. It's an OJT skillset. Going from TEE to TTE (I went the other way in my peds cards felllowship) will require the mental flip of anterior-posterior relationships in the pie wedge, but that doesn't take much. I would imagine that if you can get facile at getting a quick apical 4 chamber and quick sweeps through the parasternal short and long views, you'd have most of what you need for function and effusion checks. There seem to be a good few books about ultrasound in the ICU which include chapters on echo. I also imagine that those would provide some sufficiently concise and focused reading that would fulfill your needs.