Defining left atrial (LA) function has recently emerged as a powerful parameter, particularly in evaluation of left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) and heart failure with preserved ...ejection fraction. Echocardiographic assessment of LVDD by echocardiography remains a challenging task; recent recommendations provide a simpler approach than previous. However, the shortcomings of the proposed approach (including transmitral flow, tissue velocity, maximum left atrial volume LAV, and estimated pulmonary artery systolic pressure), lead to the presence and severity of LVDD remaining undetermined in a significant proportion of patients. Maximum LAV is a surrogate measure of the chronicity and severity of LVDD, but LAV alone is an insensitive biomarker of early phases of LVDD, because the LA may take time to remodel. Because the primary function of the LA is to modulate LV filling, it is not surprising that functional LA changes become evident at the earliest stages of LVDD. Moreover, LA function may provide additive value, not only in diagnosing LVDD, but also in grading its severity and in monitoring the effects of treatment. The current review provides a critical appraisal on the existing evidence for the role of LA metrics in evaluation of LVDD and consequent heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
Abstract
The EACVI/ASE/Industry Task Force to standardize deformation imaging prepared this consensus document to standardize definitions and techniques for using two-dimensional (2D) speckle ...tracking echocardiography (STE) to assess left atrial, right ventricular, and right atrial myocardial deformation. This document is intended for both the technical engineering community and the clinical community at large to provide guidance on selecting the functional parameters to measure and how to measure them using 2D STE.
This document aims to represent a significant step forward in the collaboration between the scientific societies and the industry since technical specifications of the software packages designed to post-process echocardiographic datasets have been agreed and shared before their actual development. Hopefully, this will lead to more clinically oriented software packages which will be better tailored to clinical needs and will allow industry to save time and resources in their development.
The rapid technological developments of the past decade and the changes in echocardiographic practice brought about by these developments have resulted in the need for updated recommendations to the ...previously published guidelines for cardiac chamber quantification, which was the goal of the joint writing group assembled by the American Society of Echocardiography and the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging. This document provides updated normal values for all four cardiac chambers, including three-dimensional echocardiography and myocardial deformation, when possible, on the basis of considerably larger numbers of normal subjects, compiled from multiple databases. In addition, this document attempts to eliminate several minor discrepancies that existed between previously published guidelines.
Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is an independent predictor of death. Lately, emerging technologies for the treatment of TR have increased the interest of physicians. Due to the complex 3-dimensional ...(3D) geometry of the tricuspid valve (TV) and its anterior position in the mediastinum, conventional 2D echocardiography is unsuitable to study the anatomy and pathophysiologic mechanisms of the regurgitant TV. 3D echocardiography has emerged as a very cost-effective imaging modality with which to: 1) visualize the TV anatomy; 2) define the mechanism of TR; 3) measure the size and geometry of the tricuspid annulus; 4) analyze the anatomic relationships between TV apparatus and surrounding cardiac structures; 5) assess volumes and function of the right atrium and ventricle; and 6) plan surgical repair or guide and monitor transcatheter interventional procedures.
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