Department Blog

Posted 4/28/2025 by Eileen O'Brien

Assessing right heart strain risk when there’s no time to wait for echocardiography

Assistant Professors Jessica Downing MD, Daniel Haase MD, and Kevin Jones MD, Associate Professor Quincy Tran, MD, PhD, and colleagues from Shock Trauma authored “No Echo, no problem? Predictors of right heart strain among patients with pulmonary embolism,” published ahead of print on March 17 by the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. The article analyzes the vital signs and lab test values that, in combination, can help identify RHS in pulmonary embolism patients when a transthoracic echocardiogram cannot be obtained without delay. (Am J Emerg Med. 2025 July;93:37-47. Epub ahead of print.)