Table and Figure Legends
Table 1. Clinical characteristics of study cohort.
Figure 1. Example of the automated transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE)
program as seen on the Siemens ACUSON SC2000 echocardiogram machine. The
automated protocol (eSie ScanTM) automatically
advances the echocardiography machine to each of the views on the
protocol list (right panel) while adjusting the setting, angles, and
other view specifics between each image acquisition. The operator
adjusts the TEE probe within the esophagus (proximal/distal motion in
the esophagus, anteflexion/retroflexion of the TEE probe,
clockwise/counterclockwise motion) to bring the next/appropriate image
acquisition into view. The sonographer is able to make adjustments to
each view based on a patient’s specific anatomy. A manual protocol has
no right sided panel and the echocardiogram machine does not adjust any
settings between image acquisition (requiring all settings to be changed
by the sonographer).
Figure 2. Automated protocol has a shorter study duration and less total
keystrokes compared to manual protocol regardless of experience level
(2a and 2c). There is a greater overall reduction in study duration when
the automated protocol is performed second (2b). Total keystrokes were
less in the automated protocol regardless of the order of protocol
performed (2d).
Figure 3. Automated protocol reduced the number of keystrokes across all
categories compared to manual protocol without a significant difference
in number of images acquired. Misc. = Miscellaneous
Supplemental Table 1. List of views included in each automated
transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) protocol