Sept. 26, 2025 — A new guideline from the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) offers updated and expanded recommendations aimed at improving the quality, clarity and consistency of echocardiography reports across diverse clinical settings.
Titled “Guidelines for the Standardization of Adult Echocardiography Reporting: Recommendations from the American Society of Echocardiography,” the document modernizes ASE’s reporting recommendations for transthoracic echocardiography previously published in 2002. It outlines the essential components of a comprehensive echocardiography report and provides standardized approaches to reporting findings from transthoracic, transesophageal and stress echocardiography. Additionally, it introduces clarified definitions, standardized terminology and appropriate abbreviations to ensure consistent communication among clinicians, echocardiography laboratories and healthcare systems.
“The 2002 reporting guidelines were useful for bringing the field of cardiovascular ultrasound reporting into the digital information age, but they lacked the detail and clarity required for today’s echocardiography laboratory operations,” says Guideline Chair Dr. Cynthia Taub, professor and chair of medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. “This new guideline views the echocardiographer as an active participant in translating echocardiographic findings into accurate and timely clinical decision-making. We have incorporated many new topics for improved communications, including proper abbreviation usage and a dictionary of both descriptive terms and echocardiographic measurements with their degree of precision.”
Dr. Taub explains that the guideline is designed to not only enhance the understanding of echocardiography reports by cardiologists and echocardiographers but also by referring care providers, artificial intelligence systems and patients. The writing group developed the document around four key principles that define a high-quality echocardiography report: completeness, conciseness, correctness and clinical utility.
Key features include:
- Defining core measurements and statements applicable to transthoracic, transesophageal and stress echocardiography.
- Enhancing communication by explaining and defining abbreviations, acronyms, terminology and definitions.
- Clarifying the reporting pathway from preliminary to final report submission.
- Providing guidance on comparing serial echocardiograms and incorporating relevant findings from other imaging modalities.
- Addressing the integration of simple congenital heart disease findings appropriate for an adult echocardiography laboratory.
- Ensuring clear and consistent data reporting to enable seamless data sharing and reusability.
Echocardiography reporting impacts healthcare systems, industry partners, clinical care providers, researchers and patients. Prior to the guideline’s publication, ASE conducted a public comment period to gather feedback from these stakeholders. The guideline writing group reviewed nearly 60 comments and made changes to enhance the document.
“Standardization provides a common framework that ensures consistency, efficiency, collaboration and quality,” says Co-Chair of the Guideline Writing Group, Dr. Raymond Stainback, former medical director of noninvasive cardiology at The Texas Heart Institute at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and ASE past President. “We saw great engagement from numerous stakeholders during the public comment period, and the feedback we received helped us incorporate perspectives beyond those of the writing committee.”
Drs. Taub and Stainback noted that a concern raised during the public comment period was whether a timeline exists for adoption into clinical practice. They responded that a timeline has not been published, as the timing and extent of implementation may vary depending on available resources. However, all users of cardiovascular ultrasound may find the recommendations valuable and worthy of incorporation into practice.
“This guideline represents a significant step forward in advancing the consistency and interoperability of echocardiographic data in both clinical and research environments,” Dr. Taub concluded.
ASE hosted an educational session on the new guideline during its 2025 Scientific Sessions, held September 5-7, in Nashville, Tenn. This session will be available on demand later this year through ASE’s Learning Hub. The complete guideline document, along with all guidelines published by ASE, are available at ASEcho.org/Guidelines.
June 12, 2024 
