Tag Archives: echocardiography

Introduction Palpitations are a common reason for presentation to the emergency department (ED),1,2 and can be extremely concerning to the patient and doctor. In the ED, clinical history, examination and basic investigations (including an electrocardiogram [ECG]) at the time of presentation often cannot elicit the cause for the symptoms. After ensuring that there is no acute rhythm disturbance necessitating a hospital admission, patients are routinely discharged back to their primary care doctor with advice for referral to a cardiology outpatient service for prolonged ECG recording and echocardiogram, as per National Institute for Health and

Publisher: CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group 2015 ISBN: 978-1-4822-3192-2 Price: £27.99 Echocardiography is considered to be the only one diagnostic tool that allows live assessment of a beating heart, either cardiac function or valvular function as well as morphologic evaluation. It is therefore one of the most widely used first-line cardiac diagnostic tools for both cardiac and non-cardiac clinicians. This book, by authors among the most experienced echocardiographers provides an up-to-date and clear overview for how to report and interpret echocardiograms. With the straightforward approach, this book sets out to make an echo report in

Introduction Figure 1. Chest X-ray (antero-posterior projection) demonstrating a septic lesion (thick arrow) Despite the significant improvements in both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in recent years, infective endocarditis (IE) remains a medical challenge due to poor prognosis and high mortality. IE varies according to the initial clinical manifestations, underlying cardiac disease, micro-organisms involved and the associated complications. Echocardiographically, the majority of patients demonstrate vegetations on a single valve, while demonstration of involvement of two valves occurs much less frequently; triple-valve involvement is

Introduction Breast cancer is one of the major public health problems; it is the second most common cancer among women and it has a high mortality rate.1 Doxorubicin, which is an antibiotic of the anthracycline group, has a cytotoxic antineoplastic activity and is commonly used in a broad spectrum of malignancies, either alone or in combination with other drugs. Despite its usefulness in chemotherapy of breast cancer, its cardiac side effects, such as cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure, cause considerable limitations and obstacles for oncologists and cardiologists.2,3 Doxorubicin’s cardiotoxicity is mainly due to oxidative stress,

Figure 1. A. Pre-thrombolysis transthoracic echocardiogram. Technically difficult study: large mobile thrombus extending from the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle; dilated right heart chambers (with impaired right ventricular function). B. Pre-thrombolysis transthoracic echocardiogram: in addition to the findings described in panel A, colour flow shows a jet of severe tricuspid valve regurgitation. C. Post-thrombolysis transthoracic echocardiogram: complete dissolution of the right heart thrombus (with improved right ventricular function). D. Postthrombolysis transthoracic echocardiogram: colour flow shows mild regurgitation only A 90

Introduction Heart failure and valve disease are common. The population prevalence of each is 2–3% and this rises to more than 10% aged ≥75 years.1,2 Echocardiography is a key diagnostic investigation but it is a relatively scarce resource and is also underutilised.3 It has been suggested that access can be improved by targeting high-risk individuals using limited ‘point-of-care’ studies also called ‘quick-scans’.4 There has been an increase in the application of ‘quick-scans’ with the development of hand-held machines, which allow near-patient testing in the community or on ward-rounds, in clinics or in emergency departments.

Introduction In volume overload states, such as aortic regurgitation (AR), ischaemic cardiomyopathy (ICM), and non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy (NICM), spherical dilation occurs.1 Khouri et al. described four remodelling patterns based on the indexed left ventricle (LV) end-diastolic volume and LV concentricity.2 Standard LV chamber quantification, according to the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) guidelines, involves obtaining a single-dimensional measurement of the LV diameter from the parasternal long-axis acoustic window at the level of mitral valve leaflet tips. Although it is the combination of qualitative and quantitative measure

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Echocardiography and enlarged cardiothoracic ratio Dear Sirs, The Guys’ and St Thomas’s echo team are to be congratulated on producing evidence-based advice that could result in a significant reduction in cardiac ultrasound referrals, which may be enhanced if our radiology colleagues are taken on board.1 Many years ago, our echo department was overloaded with requests for studies as a consequence of radiology reports that included the emotive term ‘cardiomegaly’. This expression is, of course, speculative, as enlargement of the ‘cardiac’ shadow may be due to an expiratory radiograph, prominent epicardial fat pads, pericardial effu

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