Echobasics


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	Echocardiography 5 minutes before starting

	Overview
	[Echocardiographic examinations] [Transthoracic examination] [TEE - views] [Stress echocardiography] [Contrast echocardiography] [Cardiac asynchrony] [Strain - Strain rate] [3D \| 4D echo] [Indications for echocardiography] [Training in echocardiography]	[Cardiac function and PA-pressure]	[Examples of pathological findings]

	Contrast echocardiography
	Transpulmonary contrast agents are used to opacify left heart chambers, e.g. for enhancement of left ventricular endocardial border definition. Difficult Doppler signals can also be enhanced with echocardiographic contrast agents. Right sided contrast agents are used to exclude shunts, e.g. patent foramen ovale. More on myocardial contrast echocardiography can be found here.
			Transpulmonary echocardio- graphic contrast agents will be used, e.g. in case of poor ultrasound image quality, as shown in this case, to enhance assessment of the lateral wall of the left ventricle.
			Right sided contrast agents are very useful in the depiction of intracardiac shunt. In this exam- ple, a large ASD can be seen showing a clear negative contrast effect (arrow).
	[overview]