Data collection and processing
All data were collected from the hospital’s proprietary database and the
hospital’s cardiology database and entered into an Excel file (Redmond,
WA, USA: Microsoft). Data collected included demographic variables (e.g.
age, sex), past medical history, chief complaint, date of TEE
performance, clinical details of the TEE, date of electrical
cardioversion, complications post-cardioversion, and re-admissions
within 30 days of hospital discharge. Categorical variables were
compared using the Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test where appropriate
with a p<0.05 considered statistically significant. Continuous
variables are described with mean and standard deviation and compared by
the Student’s t-test where appropriate. The p-values for this are
two-tailed, and p<0.05 is considered statistically
significant.