Role of Echocardiography in Transcatheter Valvular Heart Disease Interventions

Transcatheter valvular interventions have increased in importance and utility for surgical valve repair and replacement. Cardiac imaging is the most crucial aspect of procedural planning and guidance. Echocardiography is a widely used, portable, and dynamic imaging modality used for many of these interventions. This review will summarize the role echocardiography in structural heart valvular interventions.

Intraprocedural echocardiographic guidance has been a mainstay of structural heart interventions. Over the years, the use of 3-dimensional echocardiography has increased, and studies have shown utility in paravalvular leak prediction in the setting of transcatheter aortic valve replacement, procedural guidance in MitraClip repair, and in mitral and tricuspid valve therapies. Intraprocedural echocardiography is of paramount important for procedural success during all structural heart valvular interventions. Continued use of 2 and 3-dimensional echocardiography will be a major factor in driving the innovative field of structural heart interventions forward.