CSANZ Imaging Council Position Statement on Echocardiography Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sudhir Wahi; Liza Thomas; Tony Stanton; Andrew Taylor; Devan Mahadevan; Geoffrey Evans; David Playford; Andrew To; Mark Davis; Bonita Anderson; Belinda Buckley

doi:10.1016/j.hlc.2020.04.003

CSANZ Imaging Council Position Statement on Echocardiography Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Heart Lung Circ. 2020 Jun;29(6):e78-e83. doi: 10.1016/j.hlc.2020.04.003. Epub 2020 May 6.

Authors

Sudhir Wahi¹, Liza Thomas², Tony Stanton³, Andrew Taylor⁴, Devan Mahadevan⁵, Geoffrey Evans⁶, David Playford⁷, Andrew To⁸, Mark Davis⁹, Bonita Anderson¹⁰, Belinda Buckley¹¹

Affiliations

¹ University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia. Electronic address: imaging@csanz.edu.au.
² Westmead Hospital, Sydney and Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
³ University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
⁴ Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.
⁵ The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
⁶ Calvary St Vincent's Hospital, Launceston, Tas, Australia.
⁷ University of Notre Dame, Perth, WA, Australia.
⁸ Lakeview Cardiology Centre, North Shore Hospital, Auckland, NZ.
⁹ Waikato Hospital, Hamilton, NZ.
¹⁰ Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
¹¹ Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, NZ.

Abstract

This Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ) Imaging Council Position Statement aims to guide local, regional and national clinical practice, and facilitate resource and echocardiographic service planning appropriately during the current COVID-19 global pandemic. General considerations include workforce arrangements and contingency plans, patient risk assessment for COVID-19 and level of care (personal protective equipment) for staff. Both outpatient and inpatient settings are addressed, including specific considerations in the in-patient setting including scanning protocols, screening modalities and indications for echocardiograms in the context of COVID-19 infection.

Keywords: COVID-19; Echocardiography; Patient risk assessment; Personal protective equipment.

Publication types

Letter

MeSH terms

Australia / epidemiology
Betacoronavirus*
COVID-19
Cardiology
Coronavirus Infections* / diagnostic imaging
Coronavirus Infections* / epidemiology
Delivery of Health Care / standards*
Echocardiography / standards*
Humans
New Zealand / epidemiology
Pandemics*
Pneumonia, Viral* / diagnostic imaging
Pneumonia, Viral* / epidemiology
Positron-Emission Tomography / standards*
Risk Assessment
SARS-CoV-2
Societies, Medical