El Hospital de Dénia participates, together with four other Spanish health centers, in a study on bedside pocket ultrasound for the detection of Infective Endocarditis in patients with a positive blood culture for some types of bacteria.
The work, in which, in addition to the Internal Medicine Service of the Dénia Hospital, the hospitals of Torrecárdenas -Almería-, Virgen de las Nieves -Granada-, Toledo, Vega Baja -Orihuela, Alicante- and the University of Medicine of Almería, has been published in the prestigious international scientific journal Journal of Clinical Medicine.
The research, which was carried out over three years on a population of more than 250 patients by Internal Medicine and Cardiology teams at the aforementioned health centers, concludes that bedside pocket ultrasound is shown to be an accurate tool for detecting signs suggestive of infective endocarditis.
Doctors Inmaculada Poquet and Patricia Martín Rico, internist and Head of Internal Medicine at Dénia Hospital, respectively, stress that early detection is essential, "since Infective Endocarditis presents unspecific symptoms and delays in diagnosis for the onset of antimicrobial treatment, can lead to very serious consequences for the patient”.
Clinical bedside ultrasound, in addition to physical examinations, can also be used to detect structural heart disease and valvular abnormalities.
Clinical Ultrasound
Dénia Hospital is accredited to train specialists in Internal Medicine or residents of that specialty in clinical ultrasound. It has been a decade since the “pocket ultrasound machine” was introduced to carry out this type of examination. The training ranges from echocardiography to abdominal and venous ultrasound, in thromboembolic disease.
The objective is to acquire skills in the management of specific and directed uses of Ultrasound and to introduce it in the daily practice of the specialist in Internal Medicine to add it to the physical examination and expand the diagnostic and resolution capacity at the patient's bedside.
