The British Society of Echocardiography (BSE) is delighted to announce the publication of a new hypertrophic cardiomyopathy guideline, updating previous guidance to reflect contemporary practice.
After providing background to the disease, the guidelines focus on the practicalities of scanning patients with the condition. The following topics are covered:
- Accurate measurement of wall thickness
- Grey cases where LVH is due to another cause
- Use of language in the report
- Post-echocardiogram work up
- Mimics of the condition
- Defining the pattern of LVH
- Echo’s role in risk stratification
- Assessing disease complication and
- Stress echocardiography.
The guideline is completed by the view-by-view standard HCM protocol.
The guideline writing committee hopes that this use of this guideline will translate into patients with or suspected of having hypertrophic cardiomyopathy having standardised, comprehensive echocardiograms reported unambiguously wherever possible. This will minimise the chances of over or under-diagnosis and ensure clinical pathways for these patients are as efficient as possible.
Echocardiography shares the stage with cardiovascular magnetic resonance, computed tomography and nuclear cardiology in both European and American guidelines.
Lead author Dr William Bradlow, Consultant Cardiologist at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust said "I am delighted to see this work published and extremely grateful to all those who have contributed to its development. We see the standardisation of echo acquisition and reporting in HCM as a key part of the patient’s management and hope that readers find this a useful guide in day to day practice."
Read the guideline