[The best of echocardiography in 2004]

What major trends can we single out from the large amount of literature that appeared in 2004? The role of echography in the investigation of asynchronism has most certainly been better defined. Real time 3D echography, now routinely available, has started to gain respect in different pathologies. The place of filling pressure evaluation in patients' management, as much diagnostic as therapeutic, has again been refined. The prognostic contribution of stress echography has been emphasized in particular this year. Despite a still limited routine role, publications regarding contrast techniques have been quite numerous: not only diagnostic contrast echography, but also contrast and pleiotropic gene transfer in the myocardium. The study of coronary reserve via the transthoracic route, possibly assisted with contrast, should become established as a routine technique.