The recent interest in left atrial (LA) function has enhanced our understanding of the atrial contributions to cardiovascular performance in both health and disease. The development of sophisticated, noninvasive indices of LA function has been critical to this resurgence. Although…
Acknowledgment The author thanks Dr. Theresa S.M. Tsang for her contribution to the previous edition of this chapter. A wealth of imaging and hemodynamic data have documented that the left atrium (LA) is not only a simple conduit for left…
Acknowledgment The authors acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Rebecca Lynn Baumann, who was the author of this chapter in the previous edition. Definitions Diastolic dysfunction can be defined as an abnormality in the ability of the left ventricle to fill…
Many patients are referred to the echocardiography laboratory with complaints of dyspnea. These include patients with normal and depressed left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF). It is important to determine whether symptoms in these patients have a cardiac cause or…
Diastolic heart failure, or heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), is not only a commonly encountered syndrome that accounts for approximately 50% of all heart failure but also a well-recognized contributor to clinical heart failure with increased morbidity and…
Normal diastole consists of four time intervals: isovolumic relaxation time (IVRT), early diastolic filling (rapid filling or E phase), diastasis, and late diastolic filling (atrial kick or A phase). Left ventricular (LV) diastole conventionally begins with the closure of the…
Acknowledgments The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Drs. Zhao, Rigolin, and Goldstein, who were the authors of this chapter in a previous edition. Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common and often fatal disease. In the United States,…
Acknowledgment The authors acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Nimrod Blank, who was a coauthor of this chapter in the previous edition. The right atrium (RA) is an important but often overlooked cardiac chamber. It is situated in the most anterolateral…
Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Drs. Laurence G. Rudsky and Amr E. Abbas for their contributions to this chapter in the previous edition. Echocardiography is the primary clinical method for the noninvasive measurement of right heart hemodynamic parameters…
The right ventricle (RV) plays a key role in the outcome of many disease states. RV dysfunction is associated with excess morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic left-sided heart failure (HF), acute myocardial infarction (MI), pulmonary embolism (PE), pulmonary…