What was the intracardiac echocardiographic instrument and methodology used to detect and quantify the vegetation on implantable electronic device?

摘要

We have read with interest the study by Narducci et al. (1) comparing transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and intracar-diac echocardiography (ICE) for the diagnostic assessment of cardiac device-related vegetation. Narducci et al. (1) concluded that ICE provided improved imaging of right-sided leads and increased the diagnostic yield of identifying attached vegetations compared with TEE. However, there are several critical questions related to their instrument, and their methodology needs to be clarified.