A Pilot Study Assessing the Quality of Aortic and Carotid Ultrasound
Measurements Provided by a Commercial Health Screening Service
In a pilot study, we compared side-by-side measurements of aortic dimensions and carotid Doppler velocities obtained by Life Line Screening personnel and members of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation vascular laboratory. The study involved 20 adults who underwent aortic screening and 43 who underwent carotid artery screening. With the exception of measurements of the middle aorta, there were no systematic or substantial differences between Life Line Screening and The Cleveland Clinic Foundation measurements. Furthermore, there was excellent agreement regarding the detection of carotid plaque, with kappa statistics of 0.82 on the right and 0.79 on the left; values above 0.75 indicate excellent concordance.
Lucy LaPerna, DO RVT
Dinah Vince, BS RDMS RVT
Michael S. Lauer, MD FACC FAHA
The full transcript of this study is available below as a PDF document. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, you can download the free Adobe reader.
Cleveland Clinic Pilot Quality Study
Explanation of Cleveland Clinic Quality Study
