INTRODUCTION: Maldistribution of echocardiographic expertise is a relevant issue in an archipelago such as the Philippines. We specifically looked at (1) the nationwide census of physician echocardiographers, cardiac sonographers, and cardiac laboratory managers; (2) their geographic distribution; and (3) background training and laboratory classification. METHODS: Data from paper and online surveys conducted in 2015 and 2021 were consolidated alongside the existing society database. Surveys (Google Forms; Google, Mountain View, California) were disseminated through a variety of online, social media, and communication avenues and focused on three categories of respondents: (1) physician echocardiographers, (2) cardiac sonographers, and (3) laboratory managers. The main variables of interest included estimated census per category and geographical distribution. Secondary variables included training background and laboratory classification. RESULTS: In 2021, there were 651 physician echocardiographers, 2487 cardiac sonographers, and 443 cardiac laboratory managers on record, with86 readers, 405 sonographers, and 101 managers responding to the survey. The majority of the surveyed readers (41.2%), sonographers (48.3%), and laboratory managers (28.2%) were situated in the National Capital Region. Close to half of the readers were level III echocardiographers. The majority of the sonographers (46.7%) were nurses, followed by medical technologists (21.8%) and radiologic technologists (18.9%).Most laboratory managers were in nontraining hospitals (38.2%) or stand-alone facilities (20.9%). The minority were in hospitals with cardiology (18.2%) or internal medicine (22.7%) training programs. CONCLUSION Geographical maldistribution of echocardiographic resources is still evident, with the majority of human resources being concentrated in the metropolis. The majority of the sonographers have nursing as their training background, and many laboratory managers are situated in facilities with no established training programs.
echocardiography ; laboratories ; resources ; health resources ; surveys and questionnaires

Single coronary artery (SCA) is a rare congenital anomaly in which there is an isolated coronary artery that arises from a single coronary ostium and provides coronary blood supply to the entire myocardium. SCA is classified based on Lipton Classification which includes the origin, branching pattern and course. We aim to present a rare case of congenital anomaly that presented with atypical symptoms and to discuss the features and classification of a single coronary artery. This is a case of a 30-year-old Filipino, male, known type 1 diabetes mellitus came in with diarrhea and vomiting, which later had severe abdominal pain. A consideration of Mesenteric ischemia was entertained due to abdominal pain not compatible with physical exam findings. He then underwent CT angiogram of the abdomen which was unremarkable, so a consideration of atypical presentation of chest pain was considered since patient is diabetic hence he underwent CT coronary angiogram and was noted to have SCA as an incidental finding.