Use of Echocardiography in Delineating Different Heart Failure Patients in a Tertiary Care Centre – A Cross Sectional Study

Introduction: Echocardiography is an essential investigationin patients with suspected heart failure. It provides proper assessment of valvular function, ejection fraction, chamber size etc. Material and methods: A total of 185 consecutive heart failure patients aged >18 years (mean age 58.4 years; 57.3%males) underwent 2d echo testing and findings were assessed.Data was analyzed using SPSS 21.0 software.Result: On 2-D Echo, the most common diagnosis was Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD) (n=59; 31.9%) followed by Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCMP) (n=39; 21.1%), Ischemic Cardiomyopathy (ICMP) (n=35; 18.9%) and Rheumatic Heart Disease (n=32; 17.3%) respectively. A total of 20 (10.8%) patients were placed under other categories (3 LVH, 2 PPCM, 1 each CHD, Ebstein anomaly, LA Myxoma, mild MR/TR, Severe MR).Majority of cases (72.4%) had ejection fraction <50%. There were 51 (27.6%) cases with ejection fraction>50% .Conclusions: On 2-D Echo, the three most common diagnoses were Ischemic Heart Disease (31.9%), DCMP (21.1%) and ICMP (18.9%) respectively. Majority of cases (72.4%) had ejection fraction <50%. So we concluded that 2d echo should be done at the earliest hospital visit in heart failure patients which can impact the physician’s decision on their treatment,prognosis and long term follow-up.