Welcome
Cardiac Ultrasound Tutorial website aims to enhance the measurements skills of students by allowing them to practice their measurement techniques - anytime and anywhere….. all that is required is an internet connection.
Practice measurements include the basic 2D, basic M-mode and basic spectral Doppler measurements as well as more advanced measurements and calculations. Students can select to practice any measurement at any time and they can repeat these measurements as many times.
In particular, students are provided the opportunity to perform more advanced measurements and calculations that they may not do in their routine clinical practice; for example, 2D planimetry of the mitral valve area, PISA for the calculation of the effective regurgitant orifice area, QP:QS shunt ratios. By practicing these calculations with expert feedback, it is envisaged that students will become competent in accurately performing these measurements and calculations in the real clinical cases.
As the examples provided are from real-life cases, students are required to overcome the ‘trials and tribulations’ that they are faced with every-day; that is, attempting measurements on ‘less than perfect’ images.
Students can also immediately compare their measurements to the "expert" measurement. This immediate feedback enables the student to identify measurement errors which should also improve their understanding of ‘where I went wrong’. Furthermore, completion of these activities will enhance the students understanding of precise measurement techniques.
Ultimately, this teaching tool will be incorporated into the formal assessment for the Graduate Diploma in Cardiac Ultrasound.
Log in
Student dashboard
Click "Go to Activities" to begin your practice measurements. You can choose any particular measurement from a dropdown list of various measurement types.
The "Guide" link provides brief instructions about how to perform measurements; students should read this guide prior to attempting any measurements for the first time.
"FAQ" lists questions and answers that are commonly asked. If you have any enquiries that are not addressed in this area, you may contact us using the link below.
FAQ
- How can I make the text bigger?
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There are a few ways to magnify or zoom the text. A couple of options include:
- If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can increase the size of on-screen text and graphics simply by pressing Ctrl while scrolling up (scroll down to decrease size)
- Simply click Ctrl and the plus sign [CTRL+]. Click Ctrl and the minus sign [-] to shrink.
- Help! I keep getting a message "your inputs are made on the wrong frame" – why can’t I find the right frame?
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First make sure that you are looking for the frame on the correct beat (the instructions will state this; e.g. Select the correct frame for measuring ….. for BEAT 2"
If you are still having trouble locating the exact frame for a measurement, click on the "Jump To Frame" link in the right tab area. Then make note of the timing with respect to the ECG for future reference.
- When I manually perform calculations, my values are not the same as the ones on the website – what am I doing wrong?
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This will depend on the rounding off of measurements; i.e. if rounding off to 0, 1 or 2 decimal places. The calculations on the website does not use rounded off values so there may be some variations.
- How is the % difference calculated?
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This is calculated as the difference between two values divided by the average of the two values; shown as a percentage.
So the % difference = {[expert value – student value] ÷ [(expert value + student value)/2]} x 100
- What is an acceptable % difference?
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< 10% is generally an acceptable range for interobserver variability.
Guide
Students can choose a measurement from the drop-down list provided for each category. To commence this measurement, simply click on the "Launch" button.
Instructions for each measurements activity is provided in the right tab area under the measurement heading.
Prior to attempting any measurements, students should carefully read the instructions provided. In particular, many measurements are to be performed exclusively on a specified beat. In addition, for calculations there are often multiple clips/images provided so students will be required to click a different image for a different measure.
For real-time clips, select the "Play" button at the bottom right; click Pause to freeze the image. Students can then move between frames using the right and left arrows.
After performing the measurement, the accuracy is evaluated by clicking on "Check".
If there are multiple measurements per activity, students would then click the "Continue" button.
At the end of the activity, students click "Finish" and they can then compare their results with those of the Expert.
A "Help" menu is also provided for further information and guidance.
Completed measurements can be easily identified by a green tick in front of the measurement activity.