Echocardiography in the era of multimodality imaging

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Echocardiography is a cornerstone of cardiac diagnosis, offering noninvasive, accessible, and cost-effective imaging.
• Despite its extensive evidence base and guideline integration, echocardiography's role is challenged by newer modalities like cardiac computed tomography (CCT) and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR).

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the integration of advanced echocardiography techniques with newer imaging modalities.
• To highlight the complementary and competitive roles of advanced echocardiography in common cardiac imaging indications.

Main Methods:

• Review of current literature on echocardiography, CCT, and CMR.
• Focus on advanced echocardiography including deformation, contrast, and three-dimensional imaging (3DE).

Main Results:

• Advanced echocardiography, differentiating from routine methods, is key to realizing clinical benefits.
• Newer echocardiography techniques show potential to be both complementary and competitive with CCT and CMR.

Conclusions:

• Differentiating advanced echocardiography from routine imaging is essential for clinical impact.
• Echocardiography will continue to integrate with and, in some cases, compete with other cardiac imaging technologies.