QUARTERLY BEAT
OCTOBER 2026
An easy way to integrate your FCU findings is to ask yourself, “do these findings fit with my clinical examination?” In other words, did something seem off—was there a tiny left heart in your patient with suspected left congestive heart failure? CAUTION: To do this effectively, you need to consider the whole heart. If we hyper-focus on one thing—say, a small left ventricle—we may miss other important information. And that is why we go from pericardium-to-right-to-left, in multiple views. Acknowledging error Every test we do, every measurement we perform, has a margin of error— we accept that our measurement could be off by a few points. Precision is how close we are to the true value. Cardiologists by training have greater precision (lower error) than non-cardiologists.† When we report a value, we must accept that it might not be precise. Error is acceptable, providing that we a) acknowledge it exists and b) accept that it exists. Acknowledging error allows us to practice medicine. Accepting error allows us to forgive ourselves for not being perfect. Practice your FCU to improve your precision and clinical integration. If you have a friendly neighborhood cardiologist, don’t be afraid to ask for help!
RESOURCES: • Ng A, Swanevelder J. Resolution in ultrasound imaging. BJA Education. 2011;11(5):186-192. doi: 10.1093/bjaceaccp/mkr030. • DeFrancesco T. POCUS: Heart – Introduction and Image Acquisition. In Lisciandro GR editor. Point-of-care ultrasound techniques for the small animal practitioner, 2nd ed. Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell; 2021:403-416. • Ward JL, DeFrancesco TC. The Role of Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Managing Cardiac Emergencies. Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract. 2023 Jul 7:S0195-5616(23)00090-6. doi: 10.1016/j.cvsm.2023.05.017. • †This is a topic within my PhD (in progress), where we have seen non-cardiologists tend to have greater error.
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