Echocardiography update: when to order which test

Echocardiography is a highly useful diagnostic technique providing clinical information concerning cardiac anatomy, function, and hemodynamics at low patient cost and risk. Its various modalities of M-mode, 2-D, Doppler and Color Flow combine in complementary fashion to provide the physician with information important in the diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis of a wide range of cardiovascular disorders. The addition of the transesophageal approach has expanded our ability to obtain more detailed information in patients whose hearts were previously inaccessible from the transthoracic approach or who have prosthetic devices with acoustic shadows which obscure important echocardiographic information. An understanding of the wide array of applications of echocardiography is important in making the best use of this valuable diagnostic tool.