[Specialized echocardiographic modalities in the early phases of acute myocardial infarct]

The authors present the clinical contribution of specialized echocardiographic methods in the early phase of acute myocardial infarction (AMI)--stress echocardiography, myocardial contrast echocardiography, transesophageal echocardiography, as well as some latest technologic modalities (tissue doppler imaging, automatic endocardial detection, digital image processing). These methods frequently render fundamental information about the patient after AMI, but with regard to the relatively short period of their clinical use, some unsolved problems remain to be answered. Meanwhile, there exists only limited experience with specialized echocardiographic modalities after AMI in Slovakia. (Fig. 2, Ref. 53.)