Introduction While echocardiography is, of course, critical in the evaluation of primary diseases of the heart, it is an equally important tool in identifying and monitoring the cardiovascular sequelae of systemic diseases and their treatment. Many of these are discussed…
Introduction Infective endocarditis (IE) is a serious infection of the heart that, despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, is associated with in-hospital and 1-year mortalities of approximately 20% and 40%, respectively. IE is also associated with major morbidity with embolic…
Introduction Echocardiography is an essential tool in the evaluation and management of patients with prosthetic valves. Its use requires an understanding of valve design, normal prosthetic appearance and function, imaging artifacts introduced by valve elements, and the spectrum of valve…
Introduction Echocardiography plays a unique role in the assessment of the tricuspid and pulmonic valves. However, their evaluation is often suboptimal because typical imaging protocols may overlook the views that best display pulmonic and tricuspid anatomy and function. Recent advances…
Introduction Aortic valve (AV) disease is the most common valve disease in developed countries. Aortic stenosis (AS), which is most often due to calcification and degeneration of congenitally normal tricuspid valves, affects approximately 1.5 million people in the United States…
Introduction Optimal performance of the comprehensive two-dimensional (2D) transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) examination depends on the interaction between the operator (sonographer and/or physician), instrument (ultrasound system), and patient ( Fig. 11.1 ). This chapter will focus on techniques for optimizing acquisition…
Echocardiography plays a pivotal role in decision making in patients with aortic stenosis (AS) and contributes to decision making for aortic valve replacement (AVR), as guided by the 2014 American Heart Association (AHA)/American College of Cardiology (ACC) Guideline for the…