As many as one in three echocardiograms carried out by the NHS fail to deliver usable results, a newly published study has revealed.Research appearing in JRSM Cardiovascular Disease found 34 per cent of these heart ultrasound scans were of insufficient quality to provide diagnostic clarity.The findings, based on analysis of over 70,000 adult scans conducted across a decade at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, suggest thousands of patients are departing their appointments without definitive answers.Academics from the University of East Anglia led the investigation, which examined why the NHS’s primary cardiac imaging test so frequently falls short of expectations.Thousands of patients leave appointments without clear answers | GETTYPatients suffering from lung conditions face the greatest risk of unclear results, with the study showing they are twice as likely to receive poor quality scans compared to other groups.Those with heart failure also experience significantly higher rates of unsuccessful imaging, as do individuals with irregular heart rhythms.Hospital inpatients proved more likely to have problematic scans than outpatients attending scheduled appointments.The research additionally identified patients who had previously undergone cardiac surgery as a high-risk group for inadequate image quality.Those fitted with pacemakers similarly showed elevated rates of non-diagnostic results from standard echocardiogram procedures.Dr Pankaj Garg, the lead researcher from UEA’s Norwich Medical School and a consultant cardiologist at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, said: “Heart ultrasound scans known as echocardiograms are one of the most common tests used in the NHS.”They are usually the first test doctors order when someone has breathlessness, suspected heart failure or valve disease.”But in everyday clinical practice, many of these scans fail because they don’t produce clear images.”Doctors are then forced to repeat the test or order more expensive scans, delaying diagnosis and increasing costs.”Patients suffering from lung conditions face the greatest risk of unclear results | GETTYDr Garg added: “This means that thousands of patients leave appointments without clear answers despite having undergone what is supposed to be the NHS’s frontline heart test.”Our research shows that in the NHS it may be possible to predict, before a patient even enters the heart-scanning room, whether a routine heart ultrasound is likely to produce clear or difficult-to-read images.”The research team, which included experts from the University of Sheffield and University of Leeds, calculated that directing certain patients towards contrast ultrasound or alternative imaging from the outset could have saved more than £300,000 among those examined during the study period.