Cross sectional study of contribution of clinical assessment and simple cardiac investigations to diagnosis of left ventricular systolic dysfunction in patients admitted with acute dyspnoea

Abstract Objective: To assess the comparative contribution of clinical assessment, electrocardiography, and chest radiography to the diagnosis of left ventricular systolic dysfunction in patients admitted to a general medical ward with acute dyspnoea. Design: Prospective cross sectional study. Setting: Acute medical admissions ward of a teaching hospital. Subjects: 71 randomly selected patients admitted with acute dyspnoea. Main outcome measures: Sensitivity and specificity of each investigation and logistic regression analysis of each variable in identifying left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Results: Clinical assessment in this cohort of patients with severe dyspnoea was generally sensitive (sensitivity 81%). Patients were divided into three groups on the basis of clinical assessment. In the first group (37 patients) the diagnosis of systolic dysfunction was clear, in the second (22) it was in doubt, and in the third (12) it was unlikely. The sensitivity of clinical assessment in identifying left ventricular systolic dysfunction was 81% and the specificity was 47%. The specificity of diagnosis was improved by electrocardiography (69%) and chest radiography (92%). Logistic regression analysis showed that isolated pulmonary crepitations were a comparatively poor predictor of left ventricular systolic dysfunction (2=10.215, P=0.0014) but that a full clinical examination had reasonable predictive value (2=24.82, P