Echocardiography

Abstract

Echocardiography in its current form has become an invaluable tool in the modern practice of pediatric cardiology. Coupled with clinical examination and monitoring techniques, echocardiography can provide real-time rapid and reliable diagnostic answers that are invaluable to patient care. This noninvasive test can be used to reliably evaluate cardiac anatomy of both normal hearts and those with congenital heart disease and has replaced cardiac angiography for the preoperative diagnosis of the majority of congenital heart lesions. In congenital or acquired cardiac disease, echocardiography may be further used to estimate intracardiac pressures and gradients across stenotic valves and vessels, determine the directionality of blood flow and pressure gradient across a defect, and examine the coronary arteries. Within the realm of critical care, echocardiography is useful to estimate cardiac systolic and diastolic function, to evaluate hemodynamics in critically ill patients and target specific intervention, to detect the presence of vegetation from endocarditis, to examine the cardiac structure, and to look for the presence of pericardial fluid and chamber thrombi. As with all tools, however, a thorough understanding of its uses and limitations are necessary before relying upon the information it provides.