Clinical variation in the use of echocardiography in staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia: A multi-centre cohort study

Abstract

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018. The objective of this investigation was to assess whether between-hospital variation in echocardiography usage for patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB) is explained by differences in patients’ pre-test probability of endocarditis. This was a retrospective cohort study at three neighbouring hospitals in Australia. Consecutive episodes of SAB were reviewed for the presence of three endocarditis risk factors (community onset, prolonged bacteraemia and the presence of an intracardiac prosthetic device) and the performance and results of all echocardiography studies within 30 days. Multivariate logistic regression was ..