With its easy accessibility, low cost, and ability to deliver, essential bedside information about the cardiac structure and function, echocardiography has become one of the most relied-upon diagnostic tools in clinical medicine. As a result, more clinicians than ever before must be able to accurately interpret echocardiographic information in order to administer appropriate treatment.\\Based on the authors’ experience teaching echocardiography in busy clinical settings, this new pocketbook provides reliable guidance on everyday clinical cardiac ultrasound and the interpretation of echocardiographic images. It has been designed to help readers develop a stepwise approach to the interpretation of a standard transthoracic echocardiographic study and teach how to methodically gather and assemble the most important information from each of the standard echocardiographic views in order to generate a complete final report of the study performed.

Foreword -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Comprehensive transthoracic echocardiographic examination protocol -- Indications, contraindications and endpoints of dobutamine and exercise stress echocardiography -- Types of stress echocardiography and reading template -- Useful formulas and normal values -- Guidelines for the safe use of echocardiography contrast -- Atrial and ventricular dimensions -- Coronary artery disease -- Left ventricular systolic function and left ventricular diastolic patterns -- Right ventricular systolic function and right ventricular diastolic patterns -- Dilated, hypertrophic and restrictive cardiomyopathies -- Pericardial effusion, cardiac tamponade, constrictive pericarditis -- Mitral stenosis -- Mitral valvuloplasty score -- Recommendations for data recording and measurement for mitral stenosis -- Mitral regurgitation -- Aortic regurgitation -- Aortic stenosis -- Recommendations for data recording and measurement for aortic stenosis -- Resolution of apparent discrepancies in measures of aortic stenois severity -- Pulmonic stenosis, pulmonic regurgitation, pulmonary hypertension -- Tricuspid regurgitation and tricuspid stenosis -- Infective endocarditis -- ACC/ASE recommendations for echocardiography in ineffective endocarditis -- Prosthetic valves -- Normal echocardiographic values for prosthetic valves -- Congenital heart disease -- Miscellaneous -- Aortic diseases -- Indication for surgery in aortic diseases -- Transthoracic echocardiographic and Doppler protocols for assessment of ventricular dyssynchrony -- Indications, contraindications and complications of transesophageal echocardiographic examination -- Routine approach to any transesophageal echocardiographic and recommended views for evaluation of aorta -- Terminology used to describe manipulation of the probe and transducer during image acquisition -- Diagrams of standard transesophageal echocardiographic views -- Transesophageal echocardiographic measurements -- Transesophageal echocardiographic diagram of the regional blood supply to cardiac wall segments -- Transesophageal echocardiographic orientation for assessment of the mitral valve -- Diagrams of transesophageal echocardiographic views in the evaluation of the mitral valve -- References and Recommended Literature.