Introduction: Challenging factors such as financial barriers, time, and location can delay obtaining standard echocardiography; thus, primary care physicians can use Cardiac point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) to help overcome these challenges. This study assesses whether cardiac POCUS can be used to evaluate cardiac function using mitral valve E-point septal separation (EPSS). 

Method: Seventy patients aged≥ 18 years admitted to the inpatient facility from July 2024 to March 2025 were included. LVEF was obtained using EPSS. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated for an EPSS cutoff of > 10 mm for reduced LVEF and ≤ 7 mm for normal LVEF. A linear regression model and Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) was used to assess the EPSS of 10 mm and 7 mm to distinguish reduced and normal LVEF, respectively.   This study was approved by the hospital ethic committee.

Results: The sensitivity and specificity of EPSS ≤ 7 mm for LVEF > 55% was 95.8% (CI 78.88% - 99.89%) and 93.5% (CI 82.10% - 98.63%) respectively, and the sensitivity and specificity of EPSS for greater than 10 mm for LVEF < 50% was 95% (CI 75.13% - 99.87%) and 94% (CI 83.45% - 98.75%) respectively.  The linear regression model showed an adjusted R square 0.704 (P-value < 0.001) for EPSS predicting LVEF. From the ROC curve, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.962 for EPSS 10 mm, and AUC was 0.985 for EPSS of 7 mm.

Conclusion: Mitral valve EPSS is an effective method that can provide an instant assessment of LVEF using cardiac point-of-care ultrasound.