مرکز تحقیقات بیماری های کودکان

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) can add complementary information to physical examination. Despite its development in several medical specialties, there is a lack of similar studies on children by medical interns and cardiologists. Therefore, investigators aimed to assess the effect of short-course training on the performance of medical interns in point-of-care echocardiography in children.

This analytic cross-sectional study was conducted on 161 hospitalized children in 17 Shahrivar children’s hospital, Iran, from January 2021 to May 2021. Seven interns (trainees) participated in a short course of point-of-care echocardiography to assess left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), inferior vena cava collapsibility index (IVCCI), and the presence of pericardial effusion (PEff). Each patient underwent point-of-care echocardiography by one of the trainees. Then, in less than one hour, the echocardiography was performed by a single cardiologist. Agreement between the cardiologist and trainees was examined using Cohen’s kappa coefficient and Prevalence-Adjusted Bias-Adjusted Kappa (PABAK). For numerical variables, the agreement was examined using the concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

Results showed that the cardiologist and trainees detected LVEF >50, IVCCI >50%, and the absence of PEff in most of the participants. A good agreement in terms of ICC and CCC for LVEF (0.832 and 0.831, respectively) and a good agreement in terms of ICC and CCC for IVCCI (0.878 and 0.877, respectively) were noted. Using categorical scoring of LVEF and IVCCI showed …