The World Interactive Network Focused on Critical UltraSound (WINFOCUS) has released a new consensus statement for the use of focused cardiac ultrasound.
The article, titled "International Evidence-Based Recommendations for Focused Cardiac Ultrasound," presents results from the first international conference on the technology and its applications. The article was published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography (Vol. 27:7, pp. 683.e1-683.e33).
WINFOCUS conducted four conferences -- in New Delhi, Milan, Boston, and Barcelona, Spain -- to establish recommendations that outline the nature, applications, technique, potential benefits, clinical integration, education, and certification principles for focused cardiac ultrasound, both for adults and pediatric patients. The organization hopes to standardize the application of focused cardiac ultrasound in different clinical settings around the world.
"These recommendations represent a turning point for the medical community, especially, but not exclusively, in the field of emergency and critical care," said lead author Dr. Gabriele Via, from IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico San Matteo in Pavia, Italy, in a statement released by the journal. "For the first time ... multiple authoritative scientific societies representing different specialties and continents (including the world's major echocardiographic societies) collaborated to set the standards for the practice of focused cardiac ultrasound."
