Echocardiography in the era of multimodality cardiovascular imaging

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular imaging
• Diagnostic cardiology

Background:

• Echocardiography is the primary cardiac imaging modality.
• Cardiovascular imaging encompasses echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, MRI, and CT.
• Multimodality imaging is crucial for comprehensive cardiac disease assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an overview of modern echocardiography.
• To summarize established and advanced echocardiographic techniques.
• To discuss the role of echocardiography in structural heart interventions.

Main Methods:

• Review of state-of-the-art echocardiography.
• Summary of established indications.
• Highlighting advances in stress, 3D, deformation, and contrast echocardiography.

Main Results:

• Echocardiography is essential for evaluating cardiac structure and function.
• Advances expand its diagnostic and interventional capabilities.
• Real-time 3D echocardiography is increasingly used for structural heart interventions.

Conclusions:

• Echocardiography remains a cornerstone of cardiac imaging.
• Technological advancements enhance its clinical utility.
• Its role in guiding interventions is expanding.