The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) and the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists have updated their guidelines for transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) exams.
It's the first update since the original TEE guidelines were published in 1999. The new guidelines cover clinical issues in the operating room, intensive care unit, interventional lab, and outpatient settings.
Since the prior publication of the guidelines, transesophageal probes and systems capable of producing real-time 3D images have been developed and have achieved wide use.
The update redefines a comprehensive TEE exam and outlines an expanded set of 28 TEE views to facilitate and provide consistency in training, reporting, archiving, and quality assurance in multiplane TEE scans.
Other major changes in the new document include an extensive review of 3D TEE protocols and a guide for TEE performed to address specific diagnostic questions.
The full guideline document will be available online September 3 on the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography website and will also be published in the September print issue.
