Saeed Ahmed¹, Rashed Mahmood¹, Khurram Shahzad Khan¹ and Fareed Khan²

ABSTRACT

Objective: In our study we have tried to find the effectiveness and role of echocardiogram in cardiac risk assessment of patients who were at risk of cardiac disease before non-cardiac surgery.

Study Design: Prospective observational study

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Kashmir Institute of Cardiology, Mirpur AJK, from Jan 2018 to Jan 2020.

Materials and Methods: Patients planned for non-cardiac surgery were referred to our department for cardiac evaluation, based on presence of 1 or more cardiac risk factors we performed their echocardiogram to diagnose and risk stratify their cardiac risk.

Results: 135 patients were observed in our setup.

Conclusion: In our study we used echocardiogram as a diagnostic test in patients who were planned for noncardiac surgery. After risk assessment we did echocardiogram in such patients and found out that echocardiography does changes the decision about surgery in more than 40% of the patients due to presence of previously undiagnosed cardiac disease which includes wall motion abnormalities and valvar anomalies. So our recommendation is that echocardiography should be a routine test in patients who have more than 1 cardiac risk factors. Key Words: Non cardiac surgery, echocardiography

Citation of article: Ahmed S, Mahmood R, Khan KS, Khan F. Role of Echocardiography in Cardiac Risk

Assessment of Patients at Risk of Cardiac Disease before Non-Cardiac Surgical Intervention Med Forum