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Assessment of Cardiac Function by Echocardiography

  • Imaging (J Hung, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Opinion statement

Accurate assessment of cardiac function by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) plays an essential role in clinical cardiology. While left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) assessment has traditionally been the most commonly used objective echocardiographic marker, many other echocardiographic parameters exist that permit an enhanced understanding of cardiac function. These range from 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) morphologic parameters to functional parameters such as wall strain and myocardial performance index. In this review, we survey a variety of TTE-based techniques that are utilized in practice to assess the systolic cardiac function of both the left and right ventricles.

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Abbreviations

2D:

Two-dimensional

3D:

Three-Dimensional

A2C:

Apical 2-chamber

A4C:

Apical 4-chamber

ASE:

American Society of Echocardiography

Cx:

Circumflex artery

ED:

End-diastole

ES:

End-systole

IVS:

Intra-ventricular septum

LAD:

Left anterior descending

LV:

Left ventricle

LVEF:

Left ventricular ejection fraction

MPI:

Myocardial performance index

PLA:

Parasternal long axis

RCA:

Right coronary artery

RV:

Right ventricle

S’:

RV longitudinal displacement velocity

TDI:

Tissue doppler imaging

TTE:

Transthoracic echocardiography

WMS:

Wall motion score

WMSI:

Wall motion score index

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Temple University Hospital, Suite 945, Zone C, 3401 N Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19140, USA

    Moses Mathur MD MSc, Hayan Al Maluli MD & Pravin Patil MD

Authors
  1. Moses Mathur MD MSc
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  2. Hayan Al Maluli MD
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  3. Pravin Patil MD
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Correspondence to Moses Mathur MD MSc.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Imaging

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Mathur, M., Al Maluli, H. & Patil, P. Assessment of Cardiac Function by Echocardiography. Curr Treat Options Cardio Med 17, 36 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-015-0397-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-015-0397-7

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