RESUMO
The objective was to design and validate a method of tele-operated echocardiography. The method was tested in a hospital facility with an expert sonographer located in a room 10 m away from the patient. An ultrasound probe, fixed to a motorized probe holder, was located on the patient by a non-sonographer and was remotely controlled by the expert sonographer via an Internet connection. Scans were performed on 41 cardiac patients. The quality of the cardiac views obtained using tele-echocardiography was lower than that of reference echocardiography, but generated similar measurements in 93%-100% of the cases. Bland-Altman plots and statistical comparison of tele- and reference echocardiography measures revealed no differences (p > 0.05). Of the 71 valve leaks or aortic stenoses present, 61 (86%) were detected using tele-echocardiography. These results indicate that tele-echocardiography provided reliable diagnoses and acceptable measurements in 86% and 93% of cases, respectively, with no false-positive diagnoses being reported.
