Echocardiography

Cardiac ultrasound uses reflected sound waves (echos) to create images of anatomy inside the body. Echocardiograms are the primary cardiac imaging modality used to assess the heart and diagnose or track cardiac issues. Echo is the gold standard imaging modality to assess the heart, particularly with calculating left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), which is a measure of cardiac output. In addition to noninvasive standard transthoracic echo (TTE), invasive transesophgeal echo (TEE) is also used when clearer, more detailed imaging of the heart is needed. Both 3D and 4D echo echo systems are rapidly gaining wider adoption and enable new types of assessments, especially in the structural heart space and in transcatheter procedural guidance. Find news on general ultrasound imaging.

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Succeeding with Cancer: Using Imaging to Avoid Treatment-induced Heart Failure

Treating today’s cancer patient no longer means simply targeting the cancer. Given the known cardiotoxicities of some established chemotherapies and the possibility that newer approaches may damage the heart, oncologists, cardiologists and imaging specialists now work together to detect and minimize the risk of treatment-induced heart failure.

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Goal Reversal? Study Suggests Echocardiography Could Have an Underuse Problem

ASE says new data may be a “wake-up call” to recognize the value of echocardiography.  

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Echo societies update quantification standards

The American Society of Echocardiography and the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging have joined together again to update recommendations on the quantification of cardiac chamber size and function, publishing the document in the January issue of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography.

FDA clears echo microbubble contrast agent

The FDA has approved Lumason, the microbubble contrast agent marketed by Bracco Diagnostics.

Adenosine stress cardiac MRI performs over stress echocardiography

In patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with intermediate-risk chest pain (CP), adenosine stress cardiac MR imaging performed within 12 hours of presentation is safe and could have better performance characteristics than stress echocardiography, according to a study published online Dec. 10 by Radiology. 

ARRS: MDCT trumps echo in picking TAVI valve size

Multidetector CT (MDCT) is superior to 2D echocardiography in measuring annular size in patients with aortic stenosis who are candidates for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), according to a study abstract in the electronic exhibit program at the American Roentgen Ray Society Annual (ARRS) annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Routine echo may be unnecessary in blunt trauma

Although a mainstay in trauma imaging for more than two decades, the cardiac portion of focused assessment with sonography in trauma (FAST) is likely unwarranted in blunt trauma due to the extremely low prevalence of hemopericardium among these patients, according to a study in this month's issue of The Journal of Emergency Medicine. The authors recommended selective use of echo guided by high-acuity variables.

ASE, GE partner in India for cardiovascular ultrasound training

The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) and GE Healthcare have teamed to provide a cardiovascular ultrasound training event for healthcare providers caring for underserved populations in rural northwest India.

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Around the web

Cardiovascular Business
Global shortage of nuclear imaging isotopes may be over

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

Cardiovascular Business
‘A huge win’: CMS significantly increases Medicare payments for cardiac CT

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.

Cardiovascular Business
FDA clears AI tool that flags signs of heart disease in chest CT scans

The newly cleared offering, AutoChamber, was designed with opportunistic screening in mind. It can evaluate many different kinds of CT images, including those originally gathered to screen patients for lung cancer. 

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