A fantastic journey: 3D cardiac ultrasound goes live

With a recent product introduction, live 3D echo is now clinically practical. It is already beginning to have a profound impact on the way we care for patients at The University of Chicago Medical Center. In the past, dynamic cardiac 3D rendered images were possible by sequentially acquiring 2D images and then using a workstation to input 2D images for Cartesian coordinate conversion and volume rendering. Outside research settings, this time-consuming process proved cumbersome and was simply impractical. Now that these technical and practical issues have been addressed, real-time 3D cardiac sonography has great potential to impact both patient care and throughput in a number of ways, including better pre- and post-surgical planning, improved measurement of heart function, decreased exam times, and enhanced communication between clinicians and their patients. With real-time 3D cardiac ultrasound images, clinicians will be able to better quantify size, shape and function of the heart. However, the most important contribution of real-time 3D sonography in cardiology may be improvement in locating abnormalities for surgical planning. The new technology will also provide important information regarding surgical outcomes. A great benefit to obtaining more diagnostic information and higher diagnostic confidence from real-time 3D cardiac ultrasound images is that it could lead to more rapid exam times and the reduction of patient wait times. Being able to see the whole heart makes examinations more simple and rapid, benefitting the staff and patient. The utility of this technology is unusually broad, as it is able to move beyond diagnostics into a key role in therapeutic procedures. As with any new technology, there will be a learning curve to understanding 3D imaging. Though the matrix transducer is somewhat larger than a standard 2D probe, the ergonomics are quite similar. The interface of the ultrasound unit is also very user friendly. Because real-time 3D cardiac ultrasound involves looking at the heart as if you are holding it in your hands, with the additional ability to turn it any way you want, we expect that the transition from 2D to 3D will be easily achieved.