[Significance of echocardiography in monitoring blood circulation]

The ability to perform bedside examinations in acutely ill patients, the sensitivity of the technique and the accuracy of serial examinations have led to increasing use of echocardiography in the intensive care setting. In addition to diagnostic information, the procedure provides the clinician with objective reproducible data for noninvasive evaluation of follow-up and therapeutic action. It provides an important approach to the patient with cardiac enlargement and congestive heart failure. In the patient with chest pain it may detect a cause of ischemia other than coronary artery obstruction and in the presence of unquestionable coronary artery disease it provides information towards early recognition and follow-up of complications. In acute left-sided heart failure it helps in the delineation of conditions amenable to specific therapeutic interventions. Echocardiograpy may point to the origin of systemic emboli by detecting mitral and valvular vegetations in infectious endocarditis, mitral stenosis and in rare cases of atrial myxoma. It may accelerate decisions for invasive procedures.