Statistical analysis
Continuous variables are presented as mean ± SD when normally distributed and as median and interquartile range otherwise. Categorical variables are expressed as percentages of the population. Continuous variables were tested by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to assess the normality of distribution. An independent t-test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for various comparisons among groups [MV pathologies, atrial fibrillation (AF), left atrial (LA) dilatation, left ventricular (LV) dilatation and coronary artery disease (CAD)] and Bland-Altman methodology and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were used for comparison of the two methods (TTE and TOE). All tests were 2-sided, and a significance level of 5% was used (p<0.05). Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS 23.0 statistical software package (SPSS Inc, Illinois, USA).