Insonation versus Auscultation in Valvular Disorders: Is Aortic Stenosis the Exception? A Systematic Review

Handheld echocardiography is being proposed as the fifth pillar of bedside physical cardiovascular examination (PE) and is referred to as insonation. Although there is emerging consensus that insonation is superior to PE for diagnosis of various cardiac conditions, superiority has not been consistently demonstrated for various valvular heart disease (VHD) lesions. The objective of this review is to systematically review the accuracy of insonation and auscultation in published literature for detection of common VHD.