Training in echocardiographic haemodynamic assessment in the intensive care unit: how much is enough?

摘要

In this Issue of the journal, Royse and co-workers1 present very simple but illuminating data on the accuracy of the interpretation of echocardiographic images by medical staff given intensive training over a two-day course. The findings invite questions of how much cardiac sonography will become part of the expected haemodynamic assessment skillset of intensivists and anaesthetists, and how much training is required to allow for an adequate standard of interpretation of cardiac ultrasound images.