A traditional stethoscope and physical examination is 95 per cent accurate in detecting heart ailments in children and remains a valuable diagnostic tool in an era of increasing reliance on costlier echocardiography, a study suggests.
Published in the British Medical Journal, the study says that the high accuracy of physical examination in differentiating the normal heart from the abnormal means the use of echocardiograms and associated expenses could be reduced.
Stethoscopes allow the doctor to hear sounds such as leaks, murmurs and irregular rhythms that indicate abnormalities in the heart, lungs and other organs. In existence for nearly 200 years, the stethoscope has come to symbolise the doctor’s profession and learning to use one is compulsory in medical schools.
“The results of the study indicate that doctors are really good if trained well in physical examination of the little hearts for a cardiac diagnosis and also have the attitude to do it systematically,”
Source : OneWorld South Asia